


Star Wars: Crossroads

by Captain_Kiri_Storm



Category: Star Wars: Rebels
Genre: AU, Blind Kanan Jarrus, Chopper is an ass, Darth Maul is a Little Shit, For a Friend, Gen, I Don't Need Another Project, I Wrote This Instead of Sleeping, Kallus is an ass, Minor Kanan Jarrus/Hera Syndulla, Miscarriage, Pregnant Nightbrother, Sarcasm, Savage is alive, Space Battles, Zeb stinks, oh well
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-10-05
Updated: 2017-10-10
Packaged: 2018-08-19 19:05:42
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 38
Words: 38,935
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8221640
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Captain_Kiri_Storm/pseuds/Captain_Kiri_Storm
Summary: The former Sith Lord Darth Maul is at a crossroads. On one hand, he can kill the Jedi Master and take the padawan as his Apprentice. On the other, he can give the Empire yet another bird, join up with them, and maybe save his brother. Savage was maybe the only thing that could keep him grounded when it all started getting too much.The choice is all his. He's the only one who can make it, the only one who can maybe right a few old wrongs and get his brother back.With his highly reluctant help bitching all the way, of course.





	1. Standing at These Crossroads...

**Author's Note:**

  * For [yaodai](https://archiveofourown.org/users/yaodai/gifts).



All right, so sticking the Sith guy to the ceiling did not go as planned. Ezra could respect that. He was pretty sure that no one liked being stuck to the wall by their metal legs (upside down!) any more so than a guy who could walk around and got pinned upside down by his belt buckle. Not that Ezra had ever done that because, you know, he had done the exact same thing to a certain ISB Agent. Nope, because Ezra was totally innocent on that part.

Nope. Nope. He'd never do that...

The Sith in question had gotten himself down without problem and he paced in front of them. Harsh golden eyes raked over the bound Rebels. "Magnets do _not_ defeat the Force. Clearly, you lot need to go back to Jedi 101."

"Yeah...that's called killing Sith!" Kanan snapped.

The Sith sighed. " _Caleb_...you honestly have no idea how much I wished I had missed. I want my holocron back. **Now**. Didn't your Master teach you to return stolen property...or, better yet, not to steal at all?"

Ezra wasn't exactly sure why the Sith was calling Kanan "Caleb", but he decided to just roll with it. Because the Sith was clearly crazy and he had no qualms about doing things like, say, shooting Kanan off into space again. Not that it hadn't been unexpected. You couldn't trust a Sith. They were evil by nature and only good at doing things that killed people. Because, you know, they were Sith and they were evil.

"It's not stealing from murderers," Ezra shrugged as much as his bound arms would allow. He tried to see what would get under this Sith's skin more than ever. He was a pretty good sized guy if you asked Ezra. Powerfully built. Made of muscle, with sinew and red skin, black tattoos and horns...he looked like a demon. Not like a friendly guy you just saw in the street.

The Sith knelt in front of Ezra. "I have fought in a war, little Jedi. You've killed more stormtroopers than I ever have. Does that make you on my level?"

"I know something you don't," Kanan taunted. Maul turned from Ezra and the younger man breathed a sigh of relief. The big Zabrak slipped over, curiosity in his golden eyes. Kanan set his jaw and stared at the Sith with blind eyes. "I know something you never will. And if I die, I'm taking it with me." He smiled. " _He lives_."

Something washed over the Zabrak's face. "You mean Kenobi? I know where that rat lives. Tatooine. He's in exile when he should be fighting. If you mean my lover, he's with his brothers. If you mean Crest...he is still alive. Tell me something better, Jedi, and I might not kill you."

Kanan smirked. "Nope. Let us go first."

The Sith crossed his arms. "I'm not stupid. I might have given Wren the Darksaber, but I'm not going to put myself out where you can give me the chop. Try a little harder, Jedi, and I might believe you."

Kanan shrugged. "Fine. Don't." Ezra really wondered what his Master was playing at. Such a game wasn't a good idea to get into with a Sith. The Sith could easily snap and...and hurt Kanan! "You'll just let him rot wherever they stashed him. As for your lover...only a Sith would take **that** clone!"

The Sith looked like he was considering his options. "Why would you care about my lover?"

"I don't," Kanan answered. "I just think that you would like this one little piece of information. But I'm not going to give it to you. And, let's face it, your mind reading skills are shit against a Jedi. Maybe you can get into Hera's or Sabine's mind, but you can't mine. So why don't you just admit defeat and just let us go."

The Sith seemed to be thinking of it. "What is this worth? My life? I think not." Still, it looked like he was thinking. Ezra wondered why. He looked over at the Sith, wondering what he would want to be willing to let such a prize go. But he didn't understand a Sith. No Jedi did. Maybe Ahsoka did, but she was most likely dead. Or, if not, licking her wounds somewhere. "But I want this, Jedi. You would do well to tell me."

"Not until you let us go."

The Sith seemed to know where this was going, but he flicked his wrist. The bindings fell off his wrists and the Sith jumped back. He looked at them with suspicion in his golden eyes. "What is it, Jedi?"

Kanan shrugged. "Oh, one of our guys came up with this. Your brother is alive. I even know where he is. And, if you don't pfassk around, you might even be able to find him before the Empire executes him."

The Sith froze, as if he hadn't quite heard Kanan right. But raw pain washed over his face and it seemed like he was the center of a maelstrom of emotions. Ezra wondered what had happened. He had no idea what was going on, and, to be honest, it scared him a little. He bit his bottom lip and looked at the Sith. He seemed to be checking the Force. Maybe he was wondering what had happened.

"My brother is dead," the Sith wearily said. "I saw the body... I saw Sidious slay him. He's **dead**. Try again, before I kill you."

Kanan only shook his head. "Use the Force, Maul. I'm not lying. I know what our guy saw. He's a bit of a pain in the _sheb_ , sure, but he's not going to lie about something like this. Your brother is still alive. Take it or leave it."

It was like the Sith didn't know what to do. Ezra edged back, wondering what was going on. He'd never seen Kanan act like this before and he wasn't sure if he liked it very much. The Sith only shook his head before doing something. And when he looked at Kanan, it was with a fiery determination.

"No one's leaving until I get to the bottom of this," he growled. "I just can't allow myself to hope..."

The sad thing was, Ezra knew how he felt. He'd felt the same way about his parents.


	2. Choices

Sabine was going to kill him when his back was turned. Sure, he'd found her after Malachor and passed her the DarkSaber (making Sabine the technical Mandalore), but she was still going to kill him. Darth Maul was a menace and he deserved to finally bite the dust. Him and his little clone, too. Usually, Sabine liked the clones, but she wasn't so sure about this...Dogma. Something about him made her hesitant. 

_Maybe because his **boyfriend**  is a Sith Lord!_

Maul turned his golden gaze to her, a wry smile on his face. "I wouldn't try it. I'm a lot smarter than I look."

She snorted. "Sure you are." Sabine slowly took something out of her pocket, looking at Maul the whole time. Hopefully, the Force wasn't a 24/7, 365 feed for him. Hopefully he took some time off now and again for a breather. Hera might kill her for what she was about to do, but you couldn't argue that Maul didn't deserve it. "I'll pad your ego for now. But let it get any larger and your head'll blow up!" Sabine slung the paint grenade out of her pocket.

Maul yelled as the thing exploded mid-air. He cursed, used a word Sabine didn't know, and jumped. Right as he was covered with tendrils of sticky blue paint. The Zabrak snarled and a red blade slashed through the mess. Sabine grabbed her DarkSaber and parried the blow. Thank the gods that she'd worked with Ezra on sword fighting. Maul jabbed at her. Sabine parried and tried to find something to throw at him. The big Zabrak reared back, tossing his head like a horse. Sabine pressed him. Maul suddenly threw her with the Force, pinning the Mandalorian girl to the floor.

"Let her go!" Ezra yelled. He drew his own, green lightsaber and scored Maul across the back. Maul roared in pain and slashed at him. The two parried and Sabine got up from the floor. She ran at him, trying to stab the Zabrak. Maul turned around and hurled her across the room. Sabine screamed as she landed hard. She rolled, though, and tried to get up. It was one way her Imperial training had served her well. She could fall and not kill herself. The two fought back and forth, Maul moving like a deadly snake.

"Stop!" Kanan probably tried to get involved, but Maul tossed him aside and pinned Ezra. Sabine screamed, sure he was about to kill the younger fighter. Maul pulled back at the last moment and threw Ezra to the ground. The teenager lay there, panting heavily. Maul took his lightsaber and held it.

"Your lightsaber is your life, young Jedi," Maul softly said. He looked over the rest of the crew, coldness in his eyes. "I want my brother back. If you've lied to me about him..."

It was funny, but Maul still looked scary even when he was covered in blue paint. Sabine bit her bottom lip as she loved at the others. Hera was helping Kanan up. She functioned as his eyes most of the time. Ezra picked himself up, looking over at the Zabrak. Even Zeb kept his distant.

"You're one nasty bruiser," Zeb finally said. "Beating up Ezra like that..." He laughed sharply. Sabine noticed the way Maul held himself, the sudden tension. "What?"

"You don't want to know," Maul finally growled. He turned away and looked over to Kanan. "So. Where is he? Time to put your money where your mouth is, Jedi. I've lost my brother for long enough. I don't want you to be lying and for me to get...very unhappy."

The Imperials said that Zabraks were much less than humans. Not as smart, not as pretty, not as brave. They had even almost wiped Dathomir clean. Only the Zabraks already in the stars and the Nightbrothers sold as slaves survived. They were on the endangered species list, much like the Lasat were. The Zabraks, though, were said to look good as slaves. Not that Sabine had ever seen one. She'd just heard that they were a beautiful race.

Maul was certainly beautiful...much like the way a Wampa was beautiful.

"The Crag," Kanan finally said. "It's not the place where we sprang Lunimara from, but it's pretty close. You'll be pleased to know that your brother killed several guards before they got him under control."

But sadness flickered over Maul's eyes. "He was innocent in the war. Mind raped. And I failed him, you do understand? I failed him when I let Sidious strike the killing blow. This is very likely a trap, Jedi. If you wish to kill me, do the deed yourself and not allow the Empire to do your dirty work. They aren't your clones, leaping to your beck and call."

"I know that." Kanan stiffened. "I'm not stupid, Sith."

"No, I understand that." Maul looked over at Hera. "Captain, I do want my holocron back. You do not know how much money I paid to have it removed from Korribaan."

"How much?" Kanan shot.

"Try six hundred thousand credits for what is likely a copy of the Book of Sith," Maul wearily said. "I wasted my money, but I would like the damn thing back. If only to look good on my shelf."

As much as Sabine hated to admit it, Maul had a point. Even if he had wasted money on a shelf ornament. It sounded like something a Sith would do, actually. Waste several hundred thousand on a worthless piece of junk just because he could. She never understood Kanan and Ezra. She wouldn't understand Maul, either.

But she did understand him being worried about his family.


	3. Here We Go

Maul didn't know what to think. On one hand, he didn't want to believe the Jedi. Force only knew that the Jedi had lied to him before. He'd been hit upside the head more times than he could count for wanting his brother. If he was lucky. If not, he got whipped. Because of that, he'd learned to repress the thoughts of his brother while he followed his Master's orders. He had learned how to forget his brothers. Until Savage came back. But, by then...he'd been changed by his years. He wasn't just Maul, he was Darth Maul.

The killer Sith Lord, not just the little boy who missed his brother.

He sat on the edge of his bed, turning a single medallion over in his hands. He stroked the carved bone surface, trying to think about what his brother had said to him before he died. Maul hadn't even been able to hold his brother as he died. He'd been forced to fight Sidious. He'd been fighting for his life and he hadn't had the choice. It was either fight or be killed. There was no time for mourning the dead. He hadn't wanted to do that. He'd wanted to fight, to get away from Sidious for good, that was all. And his brother had been killed for it.

The bone medallion sparkled in his hands as he looked at it. Maul ran a thumb over the worn material, wondering what had prompted Savage to make it. Unlike his brother, Savage had been a willing breeder and even knotted on occasion. Maul didn't think he'd ever be able to do that. He was too nasty and too willing to fight for what he wanted rather than let himself be manhandled by a bunch of witches. But Savage hadn't known any other life. He'd only known that and it showed. Maul hadn't been required to do that.

He stood up, looking at the walls. Maul needed to go see if Jarrus was keeping up his end of the bargain or if he was going to throw him to the wolves. Or, in this case, the Empire. The red Zabrak scowled as he thought. Maul could slice and dice Inquisitors all day if he had too. They were fools with fancy lightsabers if you asked him. But he was a nasty fighter in his own right. Maul growled and closed his eyes. He could sense no deceit within the Force, but that meant nothing. Maul had felt that enough. He knew there were those who could hide their true intentions from the Force.

_Hell, I can do that!_

It was time for him to go fact the rest of the Ghost Crew. As much as Maul had dreaded this, he needed to go deal with Jarrus. Add in the fact that the little Mandalorian had sprayed him in bright blue paint and Maul was understandably nervous around them. He didn't want to get hurt anymore than he already was. And scrubbing paint off of his horns had hurt. Horns were really sensitive when it came to Zabrak anatomy. They were used in mating rituals for a reason. Or, if you knew what you were doing, you could even use the horns to calm a Zabrak down.

Maul slipped out of his bunk and crossed into the ship, his amber eyes hard and alert. He carried himself like a true Warrior, ready for anything. The Jedi had no idea of his true abilities and Maul was going to leave it at that. He loved his brother too much to let him rot like that. Even if his instincts were screaming that this was all a trap. Maul knew what traps were. He'd set up plenty of them himself.

Sometimes for Kenobi and sometimes for others.

But Savage was alive. Maul was willing to make a deal with the devil if he got to save his brother. Attachments made a Sith stronger, but they could also be used to hurt you. The Jedi only saw the bad, not the good. Maul was trying to figure all of this out as he looked over the old droid. Maul knew enough about droids to know that this thing was dangerous. He'd also seen droids like it kill men. Dogma told tales of clones being fried by droids. Maul, who did not want to turn into popcorn, decided to give the droid its space.

"I need to see Jarrus." Maul kept back from the droid. He also kept a look out for sneaky Mandalorians with blue paint. Maul swore under his breath as none came. He looked over at the battered old droid and tried to figure out what he needed to do. "Listen, Chopper, I've got a job to do and a brother to say."

The droid didn't move. It just slowly extended a sparking electrical probe.

Maul knew the finger when he saw it. The Zabrak settled down and decided to meditate until Jarrus called of his droid. But, honestly, the least you could do was let a man in who was supposed to be working with you. As Maul knew very well, you didn't leave the partner out in the cold. That had been done to him more times than he cared to count. But, there he was, just settled on the floor, meditating. Maul didn't really like to meditate, but he did like the power that came with it. He liked being able to touch the Force without interruptions. You couldn't really do that during the heat of battle. You often just went with what you had. Maul had done that more times than he cared to think about.

He searched through the Force for his younger brother. And instead of yawning blackness, Maul found a blazing flame. His breath caught in his throat as he considered what that meant. The Jedi hadn't lied to him after all, by some miracle of the Force.

Savage was _alive_.


	4. On the Road Again

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> It's from a song. Most of these chapters are lines from a song/titles of a song. It's how I roll
> 
> You win a prize* if you can guess them!
> 
> *The prize consists of no more or no less than the price of admission to this site

Ezra slashed his lightsaber at Kanan, jolting aside as the other man jabbed at him. He parried the blow. The older man came at him again, lightsaber flashing at his middle. Ezra jumped aside him. He paid no attention to the sulking Zabrak watching them. Ezra whipped around and pushed at Kanan with the Force. The older man grunted. He flared his lightsaber again. Ezra flared his lightsaber, just like Kanan did, and smiled as the other man was forced backwards. But then Kanan surged up and pinned Ezra to the wall.

"Yield." Kanan panted, like he was trying to get his breath.

"Old man," the young Jedi smiled. "Never!" He pushed Kanan off of  him and ran at him, lightsaber out. The older Jedi parried the blow anyways. Maul cleared his throat. Ezra ignored him and focused on the other Jedi. Kanan danced aside his volley of blows. The two circled again and Ezra saw that Kanan was barely panting. Ezra offered a cocky smile and tried to strike the first blow.

Until he wound up on his _sheb_.

Metal legs clicked across the floor. Ezra looked up and saw a glowering red Zabrak tapping one metal foot against the floor. Ezra cursed under his breath and crossed his arms. Maul raised one tattoo.

"You tripped me!" Ezra snarled. He drew his lightsaber and flared the tip under the red's chin. Maul, looking bored, simply moved the point with the Force.

"Plant your feet." Maul looked down at Ezra's boots. "Your footwork is _bantha poodoo._ And, let me tell you, there are others out there who are not as nice as me. Now, look sulky as much as you like, but that's the long and the short of it. But you pull that same poodoo on them and they'll cut you down where you stand if you're lucky. I understand your Master might be blind, but that doesn't mean that you can just go out there and try to fight with bad footwork."

"Leave him **alone** ," Kanan snarled. He stood up from where he had sat down and tapped his inert lightsaber against his thigh. Maul only raised an eyebrow. "What? Are you deaf as well as ugly? Leave him alone!"

"If you think you're insulting me, you aren't," Maul casually said.

"Yeah, and I don't take it from another man!"

"You say that like it's a _bad_ thing," Maul drawled as he walked away. "Come, come, Jedi. Aren't you supposed to be all _sweetness_ and _light_ , while as a Sith I'm automatically a murderer and a rapist? Accuse me of what you will, but only one of those will I fight you for."

Kanan glowered. "Listen here, you--!"

"This is not Dathomir!" Maul gave an exaggerated sigh and flopped down on the training mats with more grace than his frame suggested. "Surely you don't know what your Zeb and Agent Kallus did to keep warm, no? Surely that is no more, dare I say, _salacious_ , than what I do on the weekends? It's none of your concern, nor will I be discussing what my lover and I do."

"You have _metal legs_!" Kanan hissed. "It's not like he can--!"

Maul put his pinky finger over Kanan mouth. "I would suggest you go scour the HoloNet for materials to further your education on the matter, but I dare say Hera would kill me for suggesting such a thing. But, I will say this, you are quite sorely lacking when it comes to information on these matters. Now, please, I would like to get some meditation in before you put your foot in your mouth even more." With that smug smile, the tattooed Zabrak turned around and waltzed off.

That entire conversation made a whistling sound as it went over Ezra's head.

He looked over at Kanan. "Umm...what just happened?"

"I just got sucked into a verbal sparring match with a _Sith_ ," Kanan muttered. "A Sith who spent a little too much time in the "Witty Comebacks" section of How to be Evil 101 and forgot to spend time in "How to Keep From Dying". Because he seriously ticks me off."

"He's a jerk." Ezra laced up his right boot. "I'm going to get him."

"Do it." Kanan grinned and looked in Ezra's general direction. The young Jedi walked through the _Ghost_ , grinning to himself. The Zabrak seemed to be frightened of Chopper. Well, good for him. The blasted droid was evil as far as Ezra was concerned.  Instead of fighting with Chopper, though, he was going to try to harness the power of Evil Droid and give that Zabrak a heart attack. And, well, if it meant that crazy Zabrak wound up dead, that was all the better.

Ezra knelt beside Chopper and whispered his evil plan into the droid's sound receptors. He could have sworn Chopper chuckled as he scooted off through the ship. Ezra just offered the Force his best innocent smile and went off to the galley.

Zeb was leaned up against the counter, blowing on a cup. "Kid, what did you just do."

"Who, me?" Ezra offered. Then he started laughing before answering the question. "I didn't do it, Chopper did!"

"You  do know that bruiser could break you in half?" Zeb muttered into his mug. Ezra thought he smelled caff. "He's not a nice guy, Ezzie. You can't just play with him like that. Look in the eyes...he's got the eyes of a fyrnok! Remember those?"

"I'd rather not," Ezra muttered. He still had nightmares about that.

"Just be careful," Zeb cautioned. "I don't trust that son of a bantha any farther than I could throw him!" And since Zeb could throw quite a distance, Ezra had to suppress the smile. He did wonder what Maul had been referencing. He was a Sith, true, and he lied. All Sith lied, didn't they? That was what Kanan said...and Kanan knew what he was talking about!

"Me either," Ezra muttered. "Me either."


	5. Mando'ad

Sabine was bored. And that was never a good thing. She just wanted something to do and had nothing to do it with. No motivation, either. Sure, she could always paint her armor again, but she didn't want to start a design with no way of finishing the design. That would just make a lot of problems with not a lot of ways to fix it beyond taking all the paint off and just working on it again. Which was more work than she wanted to do at the moment. Yes, she was being lazy. No, she was not at Mandalore's Imperial Academy any more, she could do what she wanted.

Within certain limits. Killing the big Sith probably broke the rules.

Someone pounded on the door. Sabine rolled over and grabbed her blanket, pulling it over her head. "Go away!"

"Then call off your damn droid!" came a slightly panicked voice from outside. Followed by a yelp and boots running away. "Dammit! I'll turn you into scrap junk, so help me Saint Murphy!"

Sabine just rolled her eyes and went back to sleep. She tried to ignore the cursing and the thuds that happened every so often. And the bizarre, creepy laughter that started filling the halls. It looked like Chopper had given Red Butt the royal welcome, then. She hoped Maul would remember that and know that he was not welcome here. He was a butt, true as that. He'd blinded Kanan on Malachor. And then he'd tried to steal back that Holocron. His property or not, he should have asked first. Not go in all guns a blazing like some idiot in a Space Western.

She got up a few hours later and took the Dark Saber from where she'd stashed it. Sabine would defend her weapon to the last breath. Maybe _Mandalore_ was an empty title with the Empire, but it was **her** empty title. She looked at the weapon, marveling at the sheer darkness of the blade. It was like a piece of pure midnight onyx, sprinkled with the stars themselves. Like someone had torn the very heart out of the Void.

_I wonder what his head would look like, rolling all over the ground. It's not like he didn't kill Pre Vizsla with it!_

Vengeance ran through her veins like blood. It was the same with all of the _Mando'ad_. Sabine had little to no patience for some stupid Sith with a seeming death wish. Surely he had to know that he'd murdered her kinsman in cold blood? Such a duel shouldn't have been agreed too! It was too unbalanced! If he had tried to stab Maul in the back, that would have been fine. But agreeing to a duel that was certain death for the other man involved... That was **murder**. Maul was the Jedi Bitch, pure and simple. He did their dirty work and crawled back for the scraps.

She fastened the weapon on her belt and walked out of the room. Sabine took a steadying breath and walked down to the galley. She'd taken to grabbing the Dark Saber and wearing it in the ship. Just to tell that Zabrak exactly what he was in her eyes. He was lower than a vent worm if you asked her. And she'd tell him. Her mother, Rook, had always called him the Jedi's Bitch. _He does their bitch work_ , the older woman had said. _And he killed your father. Can't you hear his blood calling to yours? Vengeance is yours, my **kih akaanir**. It's up to you to avenge our House_.

_What would Dad say if I was letting his killer walk around and didn't whack his head off?_

He probably wouldn't have been very amused. And, likewise, neither would Rook.  She had a Clan to look after, hence the fact that she hadn't tracked down her husband's killer and whacked him. Preferably with some torture first. Tearing out his horns was sounding much, much better than just whacking off his head and playing bolo-ball. He'd killed both a Mandalore **and** her father! _Tal par tal_. Blood for blood. That was the way things worked. The Jedi's Bitch wouldn't be doing anyone's bitch work with his head rolling in the gutter.

She stopped in the galley, looking at the red Zabrak with cold amber eyes. "What the hell are you doing?"

"Fixing this damn droid." Maul was elbow deep in Chopper's guts. It looked like he'd deactivated the droid and was playing with the wiring. "I am a guest here, Wren of House Vizsla."

"So you know who I am."

"It was a fight." Maul played with a section of wiring. "Would you have preferred your father to have been executed by Duchess Satine's protectors?" He frowned and went back to his work. Sabine's hackles went up. "And don't try to kill me. I'll kill you first."

"You **_murdered_** my father!"

"Your father challenged me to a duel, you _kih di'kut_!" Maul reactivated the droid and clambered up, his metal legs creaking a little. "He tried to stab me in the back! I had to fight him or risk losing my Warriors! Your father was a fool."

"And you're the Jedi's Bitch," she hissed. "Don't lie about it. I know you've karked a least one general. Are you such a slut that--!" Sabine went flying across the room. Her head hit the wall with a _thud_ and she tried to scream as he grabbed her throat with the Force and started to choke. Terror widened her eyes and she tried to struggle, but it was useless. Maul pulled her to him with the Force, flames of gold dancing in his eyes.

"Don't," he snarled. " ** _Ever_** call me that **again**."

Sabine managed to pull the Dark Saber off her belt and stab him between the shoulder and the chest. Maul screamed and dropped her, his eyes wild with pain. Sabine rolled and grabbed the Saber and took a swing at him. A blade of burning crimson slashed across it and drove her back. Sabine screamed her rage and batted at him. Maul parried the blow and slashed her across the face. Sabine fell down and landed on her _sheb_.

He grabbed her with the Force and held her up. "Learn your history, bitch."

And then he walked away.


	6. Calling Home

Saying Maul was pissed off was an understatement. Yes, he knew he was a Sith trespassing on Jedi territory. And, no, he honestly did not give a shit. Maul had more things to deal with right now than a pissy Jedi and his feral children. And his stupid little attack droid that now functioned as an automated mop. He'd go send it to annoy Kanan soon enough. Chasing him with a sparking stick was fine. Fun, even, if he was feeling up to the chase. The laughing gas was a little much if you asked him, but no one ever did. But locking him out of his comm was asking for it.

Maul threw the device on his paltry bunk and started messing with it. He would have _liked_ to be able to sink into blissful oblivion, but that only came with one thing. Otherwise, it had been trained out of him. Maul muttered a few curses under his breath and tarted to go through the external logs. He would hate to damage a piece of sensitive, specialized equipment. Especially since this was a mated comm and the only other person who could reach this happened to be one of the three most import people in his life. Maul wasted a few moments gleefully imagining kissing his _ **husband**_ in front of that dumb ass Jedi.

_Now **that** might make him pop a gasket._

He finally overrode the password change and started going through his data. He was pretty sure that damn droid had just wrote a quick override program, not went in and changed the actual settings. He wasn't liking what he was getting from the Jedi. And killing his Mandalorian brat would likely get him spaced. Better to let her hang herself (honestly, who could fault him for reacting to getting **stabbed** , for kark's sake) and keep his head attached to his shoulders. Another worrying thing was the shards of pain occasionally slicing through him. He could hide it from these _bar'ves_ , but he wouldn't be able to hide it from Crest or Dogma. Better to go through that here than worry them.

Maul allowed himself a small smile. It was strange, to know that your non-Force sensitive family could tell you were in pain when the Jedi next door either didn't give a flying kark or was blind to it. And, as Crest was fond of saying, the two clones were as Force sensitive as a wooden fence post. Maul, having never seen one of those, simply assumed that the boy had picked up the saying from one of those books he was always reading. Maul stretched out and pulled his shirt off before getting the roll of bandages out of one of his leg compartments. They had talked about having his legs regrown in the past, but Maul didn't wish to hurt his husband by dragging him back to Kamino. Add in the fact that most of their money had gone to that damn holocron...

The red Zabrak tore off a section of bandages with his teeth and cleaned out the injuries. He grimaced as the salve burned the edges of the wound slightly. He'd been hurt worse, after all. He had his Forced damned **legs** cut off! With a lightsaber! And he'd been dumped in a pit of garbage and left for the rats to eat. So Maul was tough. He liked to think so and usually got pissy if anyone was trying to baby him. Well, there was one person allowed too, but that was it. Otherwise the Zab got just a wee bit irritated.

He looked through the messages and groaned. Five missed comms, all from Dogma, and all probably panicked that he'd been killed. He allowed himself a small huff about the **nerve** of some people.

Maul selected the call option and settled cross-legged on the bed. "Hello, my dear."

"You _bantha_." The tattooed clone picked up on the first ring. "I thought you were dead!"

"It takes a lot more than a Jedi to kill me, dear one." Maul moved so that his shoulder wasn't that visible. He tried not to wince as a wave of agony flashed through his body. He didn't want to touch the Apprentice bond he had with Savage, but he feared that was where this pain was coming from.

"You got stabbed," Dogma dryly said. "And don't try to hide it. How deep did this one go?"

Maul thought. "Several inches. Darksaber. The bitch didn't know what she was doing and I'm lucky. You know that. But enough of that. I have found the holocron and I'm attempting to get it back from a very annoying padawan. And I might have sent a droid to go mop a Jedi's boots for him."

"Do I need to come out here?" Dogma asked. Maul rolled his eyes. As tempting as it was to act like a horny teenager and piss the Jedi off even more, it wasn't worth it. And he had done the medical tests. The options once open to him had been closed by Naboo. Even, if by some miracle that area had escaped unscathed, there was too much scar tissue. And his Master had probably ensured that he was sterile. There was a lot he blocked about his childhood for the sake of sanity. "Because I'm just sitting here bored. Crest isn't in school right now. If you need us, we'll drop it and come out there."

"I don't want the Jedi to get even more pissed off than he is. He doesn't like clones." Maul closed his eyes and tried to figure out how to work this. "It's about my brother. I...I have received word that he's still alive."

"Damn..." Dogma trailed off. Maul felt the odd prickle along his spine that said he was being watched. He cursed softly and looked towards the ceiling. Was it the Jedi brat? Or the Mandalorian bitch? "I...I can't fault you for that. I know what we've done for my brothers."

"Give me a second." Maul pulled himself to his feet. He hadn't done a good job with his first set of legs and the ones the witches had given him weren't much better. But they had been very surprised to see that he was missing the vital parts that made him a good breeder. He'd been tossed aside quicker than you dropped a hot rock after that. Still, he had had more random chunks of metal shoved up his spine... He stood to his feet and held up his hands. There was a yelp and a very surprised looking padawan fell from the ceiling. "I'll comm you later, my love. I have a pest problem."

Dogma just raised an eyebrow. "Crest did that."

"Crest was playing hide and seek. He was also a small child." Maul considered reaching going for his lightsaber, but refrained. "Please, dearest, comm back later."

"I'll wait up." With that, Dogma cut the link.

Hot golden eyes seared into the young Jedi on the floor. Maul went back to book of Karnax mediation his friend Rollie had given him and took a long breath through his nose and tried ti find his _center_.

_I am the wind across the sky...I am the wind across the sky...I am the wind across... **SCREW** **IT**! I'm pissed!_

"What the hell are you doing, spying on me?!" Maul roared. He grabbed his shirt and tried to get it back on. He'd run around naked if he had too (and to tease his husband) but not otherwise. He rounded on the young Jedi. "And did you make that damn droid lock me out of my comm?!"

"He was supposed to chase you!" the padawan yelped.

Maul pinched his nose. "Well, genius, if you haven't noticed, your droid is _shit_ at following orders!"

"Are you married?" the Jedi blurted. "Are you really wearing a _ring_?"

"Get out!" Maul picked him up with the Force, kicked open the door, and tossed him out on his butt. He also zapped the Jedi with a low level amount of sparks. The kind you would use to keep a small child away from a dangerous nuclear reactor, for instance. "And don't come near me again!"

And that was when a fresh amount of pain stabbed him through the leg. Maul sank down on the floor and _screamed_. And kept on screaming as the pain just kept on coming. He wasn't aware of the tears until they dripped down his nose or the muted pleas that fell from his lips. In that awful moment, he felt like he was **_alone_**. That just made the pain all the worse and Maul screamed until he thought his voice would give out.

He was only vaguely aware of arms that grabbed his torso. He acted by instinct, turning around and attempting to scent his husband's shoulder. But he smelled wrong and Maul looked up with unfocused eyes.

"You smell weird." And that was when blessed darkness took him and Maul passed out.


	7. Really?

Ezra had no idea why Maul had just thrown him out like that. He rubbed his butt and considered kicking down the door. After all, this was **his** ship and Maul was a highly unwelcome guest. The Zabrak had just shown up, looking for that damn Holocron, like he was expecting Ezra to just hand it back. Well, it was finders keepers, losers weepers. And he'd tried to kill Sabine! Force choked her and thrown her into the wall! So why, again, was he supposed to just sit there and let a Sith wreck havoc on their crew?! And he'd turned Chopper into a cleaning droid!

That was until he heard the screams and felt waves of agony pulsing through the Force. Ezra did the best thing he could and grabbed Kanan. Both Jedi burst into the guest room and hauled the shaking Zabrak up. Maul was screaming and jerking, his entire body going rigid and them flinching back. Like he was avoiing getting struck, or something. Kanan grabbed him. Maul clung to the other man like he was a rope to a drowning man. And then he stuck his red nose into Kanan's shoulder, just before he stated that the Jedi smelled weird.

Of course, he had to pass out.

"Did he just _sniff_ me?!" Kanan yelped. He looked like he was considering dropping the injured Zabrak. Ezra shrugged. He picked up the long taloned hand, marveling at the smooth, golden band. It was an archaic thing, to have a wedding ring. Why he'd even bothered was beyond Ezra. It was just a stupid symbol. Plus, he couldn't imagine anyone who would want to marry a Sith. Or why a Sith would get married at all.

"I think so." Ezra still fumbled with his hand. "Kanan, why does he bother wearing a ring if he's slept with so many people?"

The older Jedi snorted as they hauled him upright. "What has this guy been eating, rocks?!" He dropped the unconscious Zabrak on the bunk and looked at him. "Who knows what goes on in that morass he calls a brain. Let's see if we can figure out why he's screaming. That was _not_ a way I wanted to get woken up."

Ezra nodded and started working the smooth, golden band off of Maul's finger. The Zabrak didn't stir as Kanan sifted through his mind. Ezra could feel something strange in the Force around him, but pegged that as a Sith thing. Maul was weird. Also, there was alien biology in play as well. Depending on what Maul liked to do... Ezra let his hands trace the intricate tattoos and marveled at the way they sculpted his muscle. Maul's skin was warm beneath his hands, far warmer than a human's, and his skin was surprisingly soft and smooth.

"It's kinda weird, but he's...I don't know...beautiful in the way a nexu is beautiful?" Ezra guessed.

"Give him that stupid ring back," Kanan muttered. His face looked ashen has he straightened up. "He'll probably freak out if you take it."

Ezra sighed and complied. It was a waste of gold if you asked him. But no one had, so he was just going to take it. "Did you get anything from him?"

"He has an Apprentice bond," Kanan muttered. "Like...ours, but stronger. He took his brother's pain."

"I thought you said Sith were selfish..." Ezra trailed off and looked at the unconscious man. Maul looked so peaceful in his sleep and his body twisted around a little, flashing his toned muscle. "He...he took his brother's pain? Why?"

"Why indeed," Kanan softly said. "We need to tell the others. I hope he's not going to do this in the Crag. We won't make it then."

Ezra only nodded before going to get Hera.


	8. DarkSaber Practice

Sabine paced in the _Ghost_ 's hold, slashing her Darksaber at holographic enemies. Ahsoka had slipped the Mandalorian girl a few training holos and it helped her out quite a bit. She'd learned a few things, but would never be on the same scale as Ezra or Kanan. She darted and dodged, weaving the ghostly red lightsabers. She danced beside them, losing herself to the music of blows, parries, strikes, crosses, and guards. The strange music seemed to carry her through the motions and she danced to it and watched as the ghostly images fell to pieces beneath her blows.

She would never be as good as a Sith or a Jedi, but she would be able to kill some second rate Sith who called himself _Darth Maul_. Sabine felt her lips curl as she thought of him. She sat down and took a large gulp of icy water from the bottle. Ezra had told her something about Maul falling into a fit. Sabine snorted to herself. It wouldn't surprise her if the _bar've_ was high. Like a low grade acid trip? She'd certainly experimented in her Imperial days. She hadn't gotten hooked, but some others had and they all washed out. Maul had washed out of Sith training. Maybe it was for the same reason?

And why the hell were they going after some formerly dead Sith?! It made no sense. Why hadn't Kanan just killed the Sith and left it at that? Why did he just want to go and "help" a Sith?! When there were honest Mandalorians  like her Cloan starving a they tried to hold on to their sacred hills and prayed to the god Coyote? Why couldn't Manan help **them**? Why did he have to help Darth-Kriffing-Maul? Why not helping people who actually deserved it and not shitty excuses for Sith? All they ever did was kill people and blow stuff up, for kark's sake!

Wait. That sounded like too much fun...

Ezra was waiting for her in the galley. He picked at the food on his plate. "Hey."

"Sup?" Sabine grabbed an apple from the bin. She crunched into it, looking at him for a reason as to why he was so sad. "What's wrong? Why're you pulling the bantha face? It doesn't look good on you!"

"He's taking the lion share of his brother's pain." Ezra tried to eat his food, but he stopped. "He...he was screaming through the Force. He took all he could, but...but he took until he couldn't take anymore." Ezra swallowed and looked at the floor. "I saw him. It was horrible."

"He's a _Sith_ ," Sabine grumbled. "An a half assed one at that!"

"Yeah, you stabbed him. Kanan told me to tell you not to go pushing him. Maul isn't stable. Hera says his blood chemistry is really weird, too, so there's no telling what's wrong with him.  Nightbrothers...are weird creatures," he finally said. "But I saw what was going on in his head. It's worse than what was going on with Kanan. They were tearing the hell out of his brother."

"Weird blood chemistry?" Sabine thought for a moment. "Think he's on drugs?"

"Nope. It's all hormonal. No idea as to what, though. Hes not exactly got the parts for having a kid, even though he _is_ mated," Ezra shrugged. Sabine rolled her eyes. There was a reason why the Mandalorian culture was superior to all others. Especially some backwaters, half evolved planet like Dathomir. They couldn't evem decide which sex had babies, for kark's sake! Sabine rolled her eyes as she thought about the prone Zabrak. "Maul was lucid enough to tell Kanan that the "doctor" said he couldn't get in that way. Too much scarring."

Sabine tossed her DarkSaber around in her hands and imagined lopping that _bar've_ 's head off. And then...then her father could rest in peace. His blood called out to be avenged. Her mother had never remarried. To do so would be to say that Pre hadn't been enough for her. Though she was known to visit the shadier cantinas and try out the slaves there. As the Mandalorians said: If you couldn't earn a living with your sword, you could earn it with your ass". Some of the half Nightbrothers borne to Mandalorian Warriors had earned quite a high rank of their own.

"That's good. No little demons running around."

_And I won't be killing an innocent person._

Ezra shook his head. "I wish it was that simple. But we might be having problems with him, body wise. He's jammed so much shit into his spine that Hera was surprised he wasn't in a wheelchair. Or dead."

"Dead is better," Sabine mused.

Ezra rolled his eyes and muttered something about Mandalorians. He gave her the _Karnax Book of Meditation_ and suggested that she read it. Judging from the notes in the margins, this tome belonged to Maul. Sabine got her pens and spent an enjoyable three and a half hours making annotations of her own. Most referred to Maul's as the Jedi's Bitch and a druggie.

He was going to be **so** pissed when (or if) he got his book back.


	9. The Karnax Book of Meditation

Maul huddled on his bed, head in his hands. He hurt all over. The last time he;d felt the kiss of the lash was well over thirteen years ago and he would have loved for it to never happen again. He felt like crap. And he was going to take a nap and then look for his book after he got a heating pad for his back. Yes, Hera, the witches _sucked_ at making decent prosthetic legs. And, since he'd been lacking the necessary junk for breeding in the traditional sense (it was a wonder what you could get fixed these days. He _was_ going to get these damn legs fixed after they got Savage), they'd been hoping to get him knocked up by another Nightbrother. Until his scars prevented that, too.

The way the witches saw it, Nightbrothers were only good for menial labor and reproduction. He still struggled with feeling worthless. Certain things were ingrained into his culture and his injuries kept him from offering them up. Dogma might have said that he didn't want any children beyond Crest ("One is more than enough, Maul"), but Maul still felt worthless.

And he was missing that book. Which made his enforced bed rest a pain in the _sheb_. Maul closed his eyes and sat back. Savage was in too much pain for him to him to talk to. He wasn't currently able to send back messages. As for that fact, he couldn't use the Force beyond what the witches had forced into his body. They had brutally mind raped him...after he was bred in one of their ceremonies. Maul wondered how many children his brother had back on Dathomir. Not that they would know. It was assumed that Talzin had kept a book of bloodlines, but she'd never been very  good about it. And, if she didn't like you, she wouldn't add the information.

It was safe to assume that the greater witches were rather inbred.

Now...where was that book? His back was hurting him again, so Maul took the smart option and searched with the Force. Where Rollie had gotten the _Karnax Book of Meditation_ was beyond him. Knowing Rollie, the son of a bitch had stolen it. He was a pretty good thief, added to the fact that the Imps never looked twice at a non-human anyways. Though Maul had had dreams of spit roasting some Imperial (or a close lookalike) with a Zabrak with a burnished copper hide. A heavily pregnant Zabrak, too. And the human had liked it. He'd actually **liked** being caught between two big aliens. Maul thought it was probably the result of being stuck next to human teenager. Ezra had sex dreams that would have made _Dogma'_ s toe's curl.

Maul reminded himself that he was married, with a clone son. He didn't want to hurt Dogma. He relaxed back on the bed and sent a query through the Force. Nothing came of it and that made him confused. He'd wanted to grab that book and make notes as to the progress of the exercises. Sidious hadn't taught him how to meditate. He'd just wanted a Warrior-slave and hadn't tried to teach him things that most everyone else knew. So he'd taken up meditation as a way to get some much needed sleep. No more late night reading sessions that kept Dogma up til three AM.

Where was that damn book?

He swung his legs over the side of the bed, wincing as his feet touched the ground. Yes, he was going to _have_ to get that back looked at. And find a doctor who understood Zabraks to tell him why his blood chemistry was going haywire. He didn't feel sick, beyond the way he felt when he smelled that Lasat. Or bacon. Bacon made him want to barf. Then again, his senses were so much better than the average alien's, so it was likely it was cheap bacon and Zeb needed a shower. Or three, because he about made Maul gag. He rolled his eyes as he took a careful step. His shoulder wasn't hurting, so that was good. And he could always read one of the books on his comm or bother Dogma if he got too bored.

He took quiet steps down the hall and almost collided with Jarrus. "You mind making more noise, Jedi? You scared the hell outta me!"

"Speaking as the man who _sniffed my neck_ \--"

"Jarrus. Please. I thought you were Dogma and a lot of bonding is done by scent. You're lucky it was just a sniff."

"I hate you," Jarrus muttered.

Maul raised an eyebrow. "I thought Jedi weren't supposed to hate? Or are you better than the rules, Jarrus?"

Jarrus took a long breath through his nose. "Your brother is innocent. That's the only reason why I'm doing this. That brother of yours was controlled by the Nightsisters--"

"Witches," Maul corrected. He looked at his long, black nails. Another gift from Dogma. "Nightsisters are female Zabraks. Witches are devil spawn."

"Rich, coming from you," Jarrus muttered under his breath. Maul let the insult slide. "Your brother was controlled by _witches_ and then by Lord Sidious. It was the Jedi's own fault that we didn't find him first. It's also the Jedi's fault that we didn't intervene on Dathomir."

"See? Your people aren't perfect!" Maul clapped his hands. Jarrus sent him a burst of emotion that would have cowed a lesser man. Maul shrugged it off. He was used to much, much worse. Sometimes, having the personality he did only made things worse, not better. He tended to piss the hell out of everyone who knew him, even those he loved. Dogma often fretted about him. Maul took risks and he was a shitty pilot.

"Just don't push it," Jarrus snapped. "And Sabine has your book."

Maul groaned and rubbed his forehead. Why him? Why? Why did he have to be the one cursed with these packs of chaotic people and morons? "I'll go steal my book back, then. Here's hoping she didn't tear it up too badly."

Because he really needed those exercises right about now.


	10. The Crag

Ezra wondered why the places needed to house Force sensitive prisoners were always on the backside of nowhere. The Crag was on some rocky hell hole of a planet, far away from any sun or anything that might give this place a resemblance of a soul. A cold wind whistled over the entire thing and seemed to chill the stone and metal structure to the very bone. Two weak stars danced overhead, but all they did was cast a watery light over a landscape made of snow and ice. A few dead trees clawed at the sky like broken bones. The sky itself was a kind of iron grey color and thick clouds hung low in the sky. Ezra shivered even in the warmth of the _Ghost_ 's hold.

"Why can't they ever choose tropical resort planets for their death prisons?" Maul muttered under his breath. The red Zabrak had finally extracted his book from a very cowed Sabine and promptly gave her the book back. He said that it was ruined and she could now have it. Ezra had read through the book, expecting top secret plans on how to take over the galaxy. Instead...he found different meditation exercises. Kanan had read the book and even invited Maul to their morning exercises. It looked like the Zabrak used them to get to sleep, if such a thing existed.

"I think that's violating My Evil Plan Four," Ezra joked. His expression soured as he looked back to the big Zabrak. Maul had covered himself in blankets and even tried to insulate his legs, but it was looking like this wouldn't go so well. Zabraks were warm weather aliens. They didn't do well with the cold. "As outlined in the Karnax Book of Taking Over the Galaxy."

Maul snorted. "I'll tell Rollie to look for that one. Tough he might keep it for himself, he does have plans." A very funny look crossed Maul's face and he launched into a speech, mostly about the complete idiocy of the Empire, the plight of nonhumans, and ended it with a very dramatic rendition of the words "I have plans! To take over the galaxy!" Ezra was falling on the floor laughing by that point and Maul joined him. Despite the gravity of the situation, it would have made a Hutt laugh. Maul picked himself up and grinned, wiping a tear out of his eyes. "Ah, Rollie. The most charming madman to ever grace the galaxy."

"Are you done corrupting my padawan?" Kanan dryly asked. "And why does it look like you just stole the entire contents of my coat closet?"

Maul raised one gloved finger. "Borrowed with intent to return, Jedi. I did not steal, I just didn't ask."

"That's stealing," Kanan muttered, but he was wise enough not to press the point. Maul just smiled and started getting things ready. Ezra tried to ignore the lightsaber, but the three blasters, twelve daggers, several garrotes, sixteen grenades, and three throwing stars raised a few eyebrows. Kanan finally sighed and walked away from them. "I'm going to pretend to ignore the armory Maul has stashed all over his body."

"Love you too, Jarrus!" Maul shot over his shoulder.

Hera, much to Ezra'a surprise, took Kanan's hand and gave the Sith a long look. "I'm not sure what you do on the weekends, nor do I care, but Kanan Jarrus is **mine**. Not yours!"

Maul bowed his head and trotted off the gang plank, much to Ezra's surprise. "Yes ma'am."

"Good, just as long as we've gotten that cleared off," Hera smiled. But her expression turned serious again as she looked at the read outs. "You need to be careful. They might not bother on much security because of the cold, but that doesn't mean this place will be easy. Remember...Old Man Winter is just as much of a threat as is the Imperials."

The red Zabrak nodded. "I'll be fine." He offered her a crooked grin and balled up a handful of snow. Ezra thought back to the results from the blood tests. They were just stating the same thing over and over again. Ezra walked beside him as the crisp snow crunched under their boots. The cold kept most prisoners under control far better than shock sticks and whips ever could. But it was the grim, haunted look in Maul's eyes that gave Ezra pause. The Zabrak was a dangerous man at best. And here, now, walking like he was...this could go to hell in a thousand different ways. Maul was a dangerous man. And he was good at getting what he wanted...come hell or high water.

Ezra couldn't shake the cold feeling from his bones as they walked. He didn't like this place. It felt evil to him and it whispered of pain and death. He could see flashes of the future, see this world of ice and death and snow being used to broadcast fire and death into the galaxy. He could feel this planet, caught in the orbit of a dying star, shudder as it was pulled on its orbit. This planet had once been full of vibrant life, perhaps half a century ago, and now it was a frozen wasteland used to house those that the Empire considered to be dangerous criminals. Ezra sneaked a look at Maul and wondered how the Zabrak was holding up. After all, this was his brother that was being tortured.

The red Zabrak's face was screwed up in pain as he walked. He tried not to limp, but he moved like a man who had been tortured. Ezra wondered how much of his brother's pain Maul was taking. It had to be hard, knowing that the brother you loved was being tortured as you tried to save him. But the red Zabrak never said a word. He just kept staring straight ahead and Ezra could feel the fury on him.


	11. Show Time

Sabine was honestly surprised that Maul didn't kill her after she wrote in his book. After all, she had destroyed a very valuable piece of literature with her markers and her pens. Maul had probably not wanted to risk it after he'd tried to choke her. And they still hadn't been able to fix Chopper. Whatever Maul had done, he'd done it well. She had to admit that he could program when he wanted too. After all, it took a damn good programmer to mess with an astro-mech. Those things were usually designed to keep bored spacers from making their droids do stupid things. Maul had more talents than he let on. It made her smile to think of them.

Maul was bundled up in about three coats and a pair of thermal pants. When he exhaled, a cloud of frost came from his mouth. He didn't look that good. He looked bad and he probably felt it. She hoped that he'd be able to make it. One sick Zabrak was enough. If Maul's episodes had been right, Savage had been tortured. She honestly hoped that he was okay. She'd never seen any of the men tortured by the Empire. Ahsoka had, and Rex had felt it. She wanted to kep herself away from the pain and torture Savage had to be feeling.

Maybe attacking Maul like she had was **wrong**. He'd displayed more self control than she thought possible. Though Sabine did owe him a book.

"Any chance I might be able to find that book in a flea market?" Sabine asked.

Maul rolled his eyes. He wasn't moving as gracefully as he'd been doing at the start and his skin looked a little paler. Was he okay? Was the cold really _that_ dangerous for a Sith Warrior? Maul had survived being cut in two! He'd survived years of torture and slavery! So how was he going to get stopped by just a little cold? She did notice that he wasn't looking as good as he usually did. Mandalorians usually didn't care all that much about orientation. They simply had too many things to do to care about some other person's habits. And Sabine respected that. She understood that Maul and Dogma shared a bond. It wasn't her place to mess with it. She wasn't going to play with something she didn't understand.

"You'd have better luck finding a fire lizard," Maul finally said. He shivered a little and wiped his face off on his sleeve. Ezra cursed under his breath. Sabine gave him a long look. Out of all of them, Ezra was the one that was closest to the Sith. But Maul didn't call himself a Sith or even act like one. Had having a mate toned him down a little bit? Made him start thinking of others beyond what he could get from them? It made you think. He coughed a little in the cold. "Let's just get this over with. I'm gonna die if we have to stay out here for too long!"

"Is there something about Zabraks and cold that I didn't know about?" Sabine softly asked.

"Cold kills." Maul shuddered and closed his eyes. "I'm already sick, Wren of House Vizsla. We don't know what's wrong and I fear it may end me." That was true. Something had hurt him. It wasn't drugs and they had already ruled out another thing. Maul must have desperately wanted a child, because from what she knew of Crest, he'd loved the boy with a ferocity that made her shudder. He wasn't human. He had strong instincts. He could ignore them, yes, but they also wore at him constantly. He had to be feeling things. "I don't want to die."

That last bit was so soft that she almost didn't hear him.

The Crag was dismal up close. A massive concrete structure that was just plopped in the middle of the ice and snow, it just loomed there. Maul growled low. He forced himself on ahead, the dual lightsaber appearing in his hands. Sabine shivered.

"Turn it off, Maul," Kanan softly said. "It won't do any good. And we don't need to get killed. So just shut it off until we know what we're up against." They had found a few stormtroopers, but Ezra had sent them away without breaking a sweat. Maul actually growled at that, a low rumble like thunder before the storm, but the red lightsaber vanished and he placed it on his belt. It looked like they hadn't even bother to lock it. But with a planet that was so cold even _she_ shivered, they didn't need a fancy security system. The cold did far better than a droid ever would. No one really looked at their little party, but that might have been since they were with two Jedi and a Sith.

"I can feel him," Maul breathed. He shuddered and Sabine feared another episode. He was taking as much of his brother's pain as he could handle. Sith didn't do that, right? Did they torture everyone and just kill things? But Maul was _married_. He had adopted a son. He might have been sick, but that wasn't going to stop him. He was going to do this, come hell or high water. Sabine wondered if that was a good thing. Most of the prison was empty and ice crept down the walls. Maul fell silent, his eyes glassy. Sabine wondered how he could do this.  He had metal legs and a body of tortured, battered flesh. How was he able to do this?

"The Force," Maul grimly said. He'd stopped flirting with Kanan hours ago. Sabine thought that meant he was getting sicker. "And, Jarrus, just so you know... I didn't mean it. I was just trying to lighten the mood."

"That's good, because Hera would have killed you," Kanan shot back.

Maul laughed weakly. "I'm not afraid of her, Jedi. Force only knows what I've seen. I'll tell you lot this--there isn't only Light and Dark. There are a thousand shades of grey between."

All of Sabine's instincts were screaming that this was a trap, but one look at Maul's face said he knew.


	12. Savage

Maul was cold. He didn't _like_ to be cold, it made him hurt. And he was likely to hear shit from Dogma if he got sick from this. Well...he had to do what he had to do. His brother was more important than he was. Savage had gone out of his way to save his life. He would have starved on the nightmare that was Lotho Minor. He still had flash backs. The oddest things could set him off. Most of them were scents, which was why he tried to avoid engine scents and rusty metal. Which was harder than it looked when you lived shipboard. And the smell had gotten so much worse in the past few months.

Right about when his blood started going haywire. Maul wondered if they were related.

The cold concrete only made things worse. Maul forced himself to walk along, shivering as he did so. His nose dripped down his face and he wiped it off on his borrowed coat. Jarrus rolled his eyes. Maul made a point of blowing his nose on the sleeve before smirking. He tried not to look at it and finally wiped his sleeve off on the wall. Bridger shook his head. Well, Maul could be petty. He was good at that. Dogma might have jumped down his throat, but, _Force_ he needed his husband right about now. Because he was tired and he was grumpy. Dogma was his better half.

_And **why** am I moaning about not having Dogma right now...?_

Having his husband right now actually seemed like a very good thing. Maybe because Dogma loved him. Maybe because having Dogma around actually made him feel better. He was a calming person. Dogma was cool headed and calm. He liked to make plans. Maul was hot headed and reckless. He had a tenancy to jump in with both feet and lots of noise. Together, they managed to not burn the galaxy down. Though Maul would have done it just to dance on their collective graves. And it wasn't like he hadn't had a slight crush on that Queen he'd been sent to "deal with". Sidious must have known.

"Where is he, Maul?" Jarrus finally asked.

Maul closed his eyes and touched the Force. He thought about his brother, how his natural Force abilities had been twisted into something they weren't. Savage had been good at healing and not good with the other aspects of the Force. But he'd been forced into being a Warrior. Mated to a sadistic witch who enjoyed hurting him. He might even have had children, not that Savage had ever been allowed to see them. He was just a male. Only good for breeding and manual labor. Asajj would have whored him out for his build and natural Force ability.

"I can feel him," Maul softly said. "He's hurt. Really, _**really**_ hurt." Maul actually wondered if his brother would make it or not. His legs had been broken and burns covered his body. He was malnourished. And the cold...the cold was slowly killing him. Savage wasn't the muscle bound beast he knew and loved. His tattoos were brown, not black, and his horns not as jagged. He might not have even known his brother or that he'd died on the end of a lightsaber. Maul took off, trying to look like he knew what he was doing. He bit his bottom lip and looked around. Nothing but cold cells as far as the eye could see.

And a patch of darkness that made his stomach turn.

The red moved towards it and activated his lightsaber. He growled softly. None of the guards passed him and he knew what that meant. The Zabrak jogged forward and looked around. The cells were empty, but the air stunk of death. Maul raised his upper lip. He touched the Force again and whirled around just in time. The doubled lightsaver almost took his head off. Maul ducked back as best as his freezing legs would allow him. A Mirialan female rushed him. Maul sent her back and snapped her neck with the Force. A Twi'lek male, his eyes like twin embers, rushed at him. Maul stepped aside and speared him through the chest.

 _Nothing_ would stop him from getting his brother. **Nothing**.

He jogged forwards, looking around. None of these cells looked like they had a shivering yellow Zabrak. Maul looked around, cursing under his breath. He had no idea what he was going to do, other than save Savage. He went to the end and felt his brother bleed through the Force. It looked like they had meltmassif, Force knew Maul hated the stuff, and had lined the cell with it. Meltmassif blocked the Force. Fed off it, even. Maul had been dunked in that stuff once. He threw up for a week. His belly wrenched in a strange way as he approached the cell. Maul narrowed his eyes and slashed the door with his lightsaber. Foul, black slime oozed out of the gash and Maul almost vomited.

"Brother?" a hoarse voice rasped. A yellow Zabrak appeared behind the wrenched off door, his frame emaciated and his eyes glassy. Maul actually growled, wrenched the chains out of the wall with the Force, and dragged Savage out to see him. The yellow screamed as he battered legs hit the floor. Maul winced and he slung Savage over his back. The Zabrak's ribs pressed into his back. Maul started moving out. Savage slumped against him, dead weight. And the meltmassif clinging to his brother's clothes made his Force-connection sputter and die.

Something inside of him screamed and burned. Maul's eyes watered as he staggered forward.

"Jedi!" he yelled. Maul doubled over from the pain and Savage fell from his back. He gasped as he tried to think, but he started bleeding. And bleeding, and _bleeding_. His insides screamed and tore. Maul slumped to the ground, gasping for breath. Something was happening. And Maul had no idea what. He only knew that it felt like he was dying inside.


	13. I Found Him Dying

"Maul!" Agony washed through the Force and almost brought Ezra to his knees. He looked around wildly, trying to find out just what was going on. Maul was in _agony_. It was a slicing, burning pain that stabbed through his body and almost made him want to keel over and die. If Ezra didn't know better, he would have sworn something was dying in the Force. Kanan had said something about being able to feel it after the Jedi died in Order 66. Ahsoka had mentioned it. But this...this _hurt_. All the way down, deep in his gut. Like something was trying to slice it to pieces just to hear him scream. Ezra wondered how Maul could stand it. He had to be strong...

Ezra ducked a blaster bolt and broke the ranks. Kanan ran after him, followed by Zeb. The pain came in pulses, followed by a few heart wrenching visions of a little girl with summer sky eyes and a gentle way. And misery. The pain, and the agony. The knowledge that Maul had killed something, but _what_? A darkness, too. So thick and dense that it seemed to eat the light alive. Sabine sliced open a man's belly with her Darksaber before running to the end of the corridor. Ezra skidded to a syop, looking in horror at the thick, tar like stuff that seeped throughout the floor. There was a clear spot in the middle of the hall and a pair of haunted amber eyes met his.

Savage was moving a little, pulling himself with his arms. Ezra could tell both his legs were broken and infected. Maul, though...Maul was lying in a pool of blood, his gaze broken.

"Maul!" Ezra tried to wade through the goo, but a wave of coldness washed through his body. Kanan jerked him back. Ezra shivered and looked down, trying to tell what that stuff was. It seemed...evil. Like it was alive and it wanted to take the life from his bones and dip them in acid. Ezra watched it in horror as it crept nearer to the two Zabraks. "What's wrong with him?! Why's he bleeding all over the place!"

Sabine pointed to the bodies of two dead Sith. "Looks like they got the hit on him."

The big Lasat growled. "That stuff kills Force users, doesn't it?" Kanan nodded. Zeb spat on the wall. "Karablast. And who else here is strong enough to grab two male Zabraks? Full grown, no less. Lead butts they are." Zeb, though, started stepping through the black stuff. "I don't know about _you_ , but this kriff feels **evil**." Still, he waded through it and came to the first brother. It looked like Maul had fallen and sent Savage tumbling. The yellow Zabrak murmured something and held up his arms. Ezra saw that his skin was inflamed and oozing. Savage didn't fight Zeb, though. If anything, he seemed defeated. And the black stuff had sopped into his skin.

"So this is Savage Oppress?" Sabine dryly asked. She helped the injured Zabrak sit down. Ezra frowned. Savage's tattoos were brown rather than black and he was slender. Almost as slender as Maul was, not bulked up. He shivered in the cool air, his eyes closed. Ezra wondered why he was still alive. "Any reason why your brother is bleeding on the floor."

Amazingly, Savage spoke. "Meltmassif. The witches make it...and it feeds on the Force." He coughed and Ezra saw the thinness in his body. "It...it killed my connection to the Force."

"And why's he bleeding?!" Zeb yelled as he waded over. Maul's skin was sallow, waxen.

"Because it killed the little one inside of him." Savage took a shuddering breath, looking at the floor. Kanan swore. Maul didn't stir, his blood slowly staining the Lasat's fur. "It probably tore the little one apart inside of him by eating its life Force."

Kanan made a gagging sound. "That...I did not need to know that. I did not need to start thinking about dead babies. Thank you so much, you kriffing Zabrak."

"We've got a problem." Ezra looked the group over. "Maul can't walk and neither can Savage." He didn't know what to do. And Zeb was right, Nightbrothers were heavy. But they needed to get Maul to the _Ghost_. And fast. According to Savage, it was far too late to save the baby maul hadn't even known he'd had. But they could save Maul's life by getting him to the ship.

Kanan grabbed Savage under the armpits. The other Zabrak cursed, but shifted around so he was piggybacking the Jedi. "Your brother has blinded me, flirted with me, and single handedly hand grenaded this mission. Please, for the love of the Force, don't die."

"All I want to see is his Mate." Savage held on, his face almost white from the strain. Kanan managed to move quickly, though, his form not hampered by the injured Zabrak on his back. That spoke to true strength within the Force, being able to carry an injured creature like that and not fall from the pain that came with it. Ezra didn't know if he could do it. Alarm sirens wailed as they started trying to get off. Savage was almost limp on Kanan's back. And Maul was a bleeding lump of black robes. Ezra was honestly scared. Because that Zabrak might not make it.

_Thank all the gods of Cold Space that Hera's been waiting...!_

Maul never moved. Not even when Kanan yelled his name and slapped him across the face.


	14. Dogma

As much as she hated Darth Maul, it was scary to see him lying in a bloody heap. And Savage's legs were broken. His own, tortured skin, oozed a reddish pus. Savage assured them that he was fine, you needed to worry about Maul, but Hera finally concluded that he was dangerously underweight, he had several broken ribs, two broken legs, several persistent infections. He needed medical care. So did Maul, but Savage could be triaged and given a pain pill and some broth. Maul had kept bleeding for hours. And when he woke up...he'd just looked at the wall.

Coughing from the pneumonia/flu he'd given himself by running through the snow. When he was a Zabrak and Zabraks couldn't take the cold. How dumb could one being get? Then again, Sabine never said that out loud, because the Empire tended to take it as a challenge.

She watched Maul from the doorway. He looked so small, huddled up against the wall. Wrapped in warm blankets and given a mug of hot coco. Kanan had even contacted Dogma. The pair had even talked, a little bit, but Maul hadn't brightened. Before, Ezra had said his bond glowed in the Force. Now Sabine wondered how much of it was from the baby inside of him. How had _that_ affected his aura, as Ezra liked to say? What had that done to his body? She knew...the baby had almost killed him. And Maul swore that he'd never felt anything, not even a flicker in the Force.

He was older. Dogma was forty five. Maul was almost sixty, though Zabraks lived twice as long as humans. It would have likely died anyways, but to have it so violently ripped from you...Sabine didn't know what to say. So she sat beside him on the bed.

"He'll be here soon."

"I know." Maul sounded numb, defeated. Sabine noticed that he'd been writing in a diary. He seemed to like the feel of print under his hands. It looked like he wasn't going to ask for the holocron back. After all, he'd lost something far more precious and valuable. And he was paying for it. Maul huddled in the corner of the wall, his plate of food untouched beside him. It had long since gone cold. He'd barely touched the coco. It, too, had gone cold. "I don't really want to see him."

"Why not?" Now this was so beyond the pale that Sabine had to do a double take. He'd never wanted that before. He loved Dogma. Sabine knew that. Ezra said they were bound in the Force. Sabine gave him a long look. "Maul, you need to eat. You...you need your strength. And I'm sure he'll say the same thing."

"I killed it," Maul said. He was broken, defeated. He huddled on the bed, his head between his legs. "I don't want any."

"Maul." Sabine felt like she was talking to a stubborn Ezra. He didn't like being coddled a lot. He didn't like people hovering. It was probably a hold over from being on his own for so long. Maul was acting like that. "You have to eat. I know this was bad. I know it's killing you inside. But you have to eat. If not for you...then for the chance to try again. I don't know that much about your species, but with modern technology...you don't have to carry it. Unless you want too."

Maul looked at her with helpless eyes before sampling a little of the meat. It had gotten warm, but at least he was eating. After that, Sabine took to visiting him. They were still waiting on Dogma, though he was off doing who knew what. It had to do with the Rebellion, though. So Maul was, at least nominally, on their side. And to see a brave Warrior like this, so depressed and clinging to the wall, Sabine didn't know what to do. Mandalorians didn't talk about depression and PTSD. They tended to say that only weak _aruetiise_ got those problems.

But Maul was one of the strongest people she'd ever known.

Dogma came after two sad, intense days. Sabine and Hera could get Maul to eat. Kanan said it came from the witches totally dominating the males of his species. It was a genetic thing. That might have been why he chose Dogma, though. Because he didn't want to feel like he was being dominated. Dogma seemed like he knew what he was doing.

The clone didn't waste any time. He just went to Maul and hugged him. " _Bic cuyir an staabi_ , _ner kar'taylir darasuum_."

Maul looked at him with haunted, hopeless eyes. "Are you sure?"

"Maul." Dogma looped an arm around him. Sabine saw the streaks of silver in his hair, the way he moved. He didn't look as old as Rex did, but he still showed his age. It was like they had dosed him to age like normal people did. He carried it well, though. And he just stayed with Maul, coaxing his broken husband to eat and trying to keep him warm. Dogma knew what he was trying to do. And Savage had wanted to speak with his brother, but Maul was sick. Hera said that Savage's immune system was depressed. The last thing he needed was to get the flu.

Sabine tried to help. She really did. But it was clear her presence was hurting, not helping. Once again, she understood. Her father's blood still sang to her, but she wasn't going to strike while he was so weak he couldn't fight back. Where was the honor in that? Where was the honor in killing a weaker, lesser opponent? And, besides, there were no potential spoils beyond a feisty old clone and some twenty year old other clone she'd never met. There was nothing there for her.

Just like there had been nothing there for Maul.  Yet he'd still killed her father.

She decided to let that drop for now. Maul didn't need the torture and the pain. His own mind was doing that good enough right now. She could wait...and be ready when he was stronger.

Sabine made sure to practice her _katas_ ever day, until she was good at them.


	15. Crescent Moon

Crest played with the lightsaber hilt in his hand as he waited to get aboard the _Ghost_. Something had happened to Maul. Dogma hadn't said that much about it, just that his other father was scared and injured in a sickroom with a Rebel crew. Crest knew all about the Rebel Alliance and he knew Maul had his own people in the Bothan Spy Net. Maul usually knew far more than he let on. If a mission had come across his LADAR, Maul would have ran the numbers and found the way that would least harm them. If he couldn't have found a better way... Crest shuddered to think about it. Maul had still been injured. It was something serious from the sound of it.

Growing up, Crest had learned all about Zabraks and how alien biology worked. Maul was trying to figure himself out. He also had a habit of slopping things all over the _Nightbrother_ and a bright eyed, ten year old Crest had seen them. He'd plopped down and educated himself on all sorts of alien reproductive systems. And come across the pages that explained exactly what happened if a species with a secondary gender got shot (or in Maul's case, cut in two) in that area. The result? Not that pretty. Infertility if the individual was lucky. If you weren't, you bled to death. For once, the Force smiled upon Maul and he'd only gotten the former. But now... Crest wondered. At nearly twenty one, he was wiser to the ways of the world than he had been at six. Things that had once been "Eww! Gross! They're _kissing_!" we now shrug the shoulders, walk away.

He wasn't a child anymore for the Force's sake.

A young guy with short blue black hair and a face that looked like a myrnok had taken a dislike to it (he had the claw marks on one side. Maul had killed the last few of those that dared try to eat their ship) came trotting down the gangplank. His stance and gate screamed Jedi. Crest put his head in his hands and groaned. Did he really want to do this? When the man he'd called "Papa" was barely clinging to life in a sterile room?

The kid dropped beside him. "So...you're that weird kid."

Crest shot him a long look. "And you're a Jedi."

"How can you tell? For all you know, I'm Agent Kallus!" the kid shot back. He looked up at Crest, his blue eyes smug. Crest gritted his teeth and resisted the urge to wipe that smirk off the Jedi's face with his fists.

"One, the swagger. I might have been _five_ , but I know how a Jedi walks. Two, Maul and Dogma taught me how to spot a Jedi," Crest sighed. He didn't go into the details about that exercise. It had involved holograms and a lot of memorization. Crest absently rubbed the tattoos on his arms absently and threw up his mental shields. In this case, he chose a rock song he'd memorized a few weeks back.

The kid yelped and jerked back. "Hey! Tone it down in there! I can't hear myself think!"

Crest glared at him. "Then keep the hell out of my brain. I might be a clone, but that doesn't mean you can poke around in my head. So who the crap are you, Jedi?"

"I'm Ezra." The kid stuck out his chest like that actually meant something. Crest rolled his eyes and sighed. Didn't the Jedi realize that the vast majority of them were idiots? Sidious had destroyed the Jedi Order long before Order 66 had happened. And Crest thought it was nice to see the Order that had condemned one of his fathers to death died itself. Well...it had hurt both of them. The Jedi were the reason Maul had lost his legs and why Dogma had been slated to be destroyed. He hadn't shied away about talking about it, either. "Ezra Bridger."

_You can never trust a Jedi to tell you what's up and what's down, Crest. Listen between the flowery words and do what your heart tells you._

"Crest." Actually, his full name was Crescent Moon, but Crest was leaving in that that. Besides, he liked the sound of _Crest_ better. Though Maul was found of yelling that name across the entire ship if Crest had stolen his tools again and left them all over the hold.

"You don't like me, do you?"

"Smart kid," Crest drawled. He stood up and flipped the lightsaber around in his hands. He activated it with a smooth, practiced motion and watched as a blade of purple light flared out. Ezra jumped. Crest didn't lunge at him, but he did make a few swipes at the air. "Boba Fett got this. Pulled it off of a dead Jedi in the Coruscanti gutter. Sold it to my Da for two hundred credits and help with a hard kill. He still had the guy's head in his ship."

"You're lying!"

"Why would I lie to you?" Crest sighed.

"Because you were raised by a Sith." Ezra crossed his arms over his chest. "And you're tattooed like a Sith."

"No, like a Nightbrother. And only my arms." It hadn't been a hard sell convincing his parents to let him get the markings. He was both clone and Nightbrother and both cultures had a tradition of marking themselves with ink. It hadn't even hurt. "Don't take everything you see at face value, okay? I'm not evil. Maul isn't evil. And Dogma..." He wasn't aware of the whole story, but he knew it was a rough one.

"You're a clone?" Ezra slowly asked. "But you're only a little older than me..."

"They waited until you're ten to give you the growth serum," Crest sighed. "I was six when I...left." Though that didn't describe the horrific experience of what followed next. He tried to block that, thank you. "And Dogma got the stuff that made it stop. I don't understand all of it. And...can you tell me what happened with Maul?"

Ezra shrugged. "He got dunked in meltmassif trying to save his brother. Apparently, he and Dogma had been going at it..."

Crest went white and sat back down. He'd heard that meltmassif ate the Force. "Oh no. Oh no. He wasn't..."

"He was." Ezra sat beside him as Crest's head bowed and he tried to choke back the tears. It didn't work. Crest sobbed in front of the one he had once considered his enemy. And didn't flinch back when Ezra held him in a hug.


	16. Numb

All he felt was the cold of the prison, still seeped inside his bones. He could still feel the gooey coldness covering his body and tearing apart the life hat had formed inside. A life Maul now saw in flashes, a little girl with Dogma's dark hair and his golden eyes and horns. She would have been brave and strong and proud, a true Daughter of Dathomir. Not like the vicious witches who perverted the very idea of those words. Maul would have raised her to know that male and female were equal and to dominate one or the other was just plain wrong and hurtful. He didn't want that to happen.

But that child was dead now. That little spark had faded and drowned in a sea of blood. It had just been a promise...and Maul had lost it.

"Papa?"

Maul looked up, his golden eyes thick with tears. "Hello, _ad'ika_." It had been so long since Crest had called him "Papa". Tattooed arms reached around him and Maul pulled his son into a hug. Crest clung to him, his body shaking. It was as if he were six years old again, in the grip of his powerful nightmares. It had taken all of the power Maul had to keep them away. He didn't want his son to suffer and had been struggling to parent the little boy. "I've missed you."

Crest nodded, his voice thick with tears. "I hate them."

"As do I." Maul felt calmer, more at peace, with his family around him. He could feel Savage in the other room. Maul coughed and spat out a mouthful of mucus on the floor. Dogma didn't say anything. He just scooted close to Maul and held the older Zabrak. Maul folded into the warm embrace, crying softly. He had no idea. If this had been anyone else...Who else would have tolerated his night terrors? His moods? His odd quirks that had been beaten into him by his Master and by evolution. He had no idea what to do. He'd lost something that could never be regain.

Dogma made a "shhh" sound and wrapped his fingers around the base of Maul's horns. For once, it didn't bring pleasure. It just soothed him as those hands found the places that usually made him groan. Right now, it was just a reminder that he was still loved and cared for. He wasn't sure how long he stayed that way, just soaking up the warmth and love from his family. He still felt like shit, but he wasn't going to fight it anymore. He was just going to float with them. Float like the aftermath of some of the things he and Dogma had tried when they were younger. Bask in it. Try to lap it up so his body healed faster.

"Maul?" Dogma moved from his spot. Maul whined a little bit, upset at losing his pillow. The clone laughed a little. Maul reached up to stroke the silver streaks in his once jet black hair. Dogma bit down and nuzzled him. "Are you hungry?"

"Not really," he mumbled.

_Just empty inside, but you can't change that._

Dogma sighed. It was so much like the days before Crest, when Maul had been so unsure of himself and hated his body for its own needs. He could satisfy them now. "You know you saved my life, right? Let me see the galaxy without having to look behind my back. Not having to be scared of every man who walked down the street, that they might be a bounty hunter. And after Krell..."

"Krell deserves to rot in hell," Maul snarled. There were times when he could still feel the sadness stretching out from Dogma through the Force. "I should have ripped him to little pieces for what he did to you."

"He's dead."

"He still hurt you," Maul rasped. He protected what was his and that was Dogma and Crest. The two people who meant more to him than life itself. He loved them. He wanted to be with them until he died and then join them in the Force.

"Uhh...can you fix the droid back?" Bridger peered into the room and cocked his head. Maul groaned and looked up at Dogma. The other man had the gall to _laugh_. So Maul did the first thing that came to him... He raised his head and kissed Dogma. Passionately. And took his time, curling his arms around the other man's waist. The Jedi brat squeaked and took the hint.

Dogma pulled back and laughed. "It's official. You're a little shit! And I think you're feeling better."

"Just wanted to make him go away," Maul muttered. He sighed and pulled Dogma's cast off shirt over his own body. The clone rolled his eyes. Maul sighed and settled back down in the crook of Dogma's body. The clone smiled and ran a hand over his flanks. Maul managed a ragged purr. "I found my brother."

"I saw him." Dogma rolled his eyes. "He gave me the shovel talk. Just like Rex gave you, remember?"

Maul couldn't help but smile at the thought. He hadn't really been scared, but it was nice to know Dogma was loved. He still sighed and settled down. Dogma understood what he needed, His hands found Maul's back and rubbed circles there. Maul looked at the wall, his thoughts a whirr. Savage had been gone from his life for so long now. He'd had the Force stripped from his body. That...had to be hard on him. But with Maul's case of pneumonia...he couldn't go visit the other Zabrak. Not until he was healthy. And it hurt...to be so close, but so far away.

"The Jedi is a prude," Maul mumbled. "It was fun, messing with his head."

"He's a Jedi, love," Dogma laughed. He brushed a kiss against Maul's head and the Zabrak smiled. "They come that way. And...I just want you to feel better, all right? I want to stay with you. I want to help you with this. I want...you to be you again."

Maul looked at him with saddened gold eyes. "And I want you, too."


	17. The Otherside

Ezra didn't know what to make of Crest. The kid was a clone. That made him weird enough. He messed around with things like lightsabers and he even had one of his own. Kanan had gone white when Crest oh so casually said that he had killed a Jedi. Or had paid Boba Fett to do it for him. Kanan didn't like the clones very much, they had killed his Master, and made him the man he was now. As far as Ezra knew, Kanan was only putting up with Dogma because he was there for Maul. The clone knew where he wasn't wanted. And, while Kanan wasn't hostile, he wasn't warm, either.

Crest relaxed in the common room, his holopad open on his lap. He was talking to a Twi'lek woman. She mentioned a clone named Boil and another named Waxer. Followed by a few stories about his father Dogma and all of the things they got into. Ezra sat down and watched. Crest seemed pretty normal. He wasn't abused. He wasn't huddling on the floor in fear. And he wasn't ranting and raging about taking over the galaxy. It looked like the Twi'lek was involved with two clones, who had also gotten the age deceleration serum. Rex hadn't had the chance to get as much of it. He looked worse than he actually was. Ahsoka put up with it. She didn't make him do anything. Ezra waited until Crest closed the holopad.

"Hey," he said. Crest looked at him, hazel eyes matching blue ones. Ezra swallowed. "Kid, what happened to your face? It looks like you got on the bad side of a myrnok or something! Or a tusk-cat got pissed with you."

"It was a lightsaber," Ezra flatly said. "I fought Lord Vader."

"And didn't die. Nice." Crest didn't look up. He just plopped his boots on the copy table. "That takes some pretty good skill, _ad'ika_." He said nothing more and went back to messing with his stuff. Ezra cleared his throat. Didn't Crest know what was polite and what wasn't? Or had Maul just let that slide with the rest of his education. Frankly, he was surprised Crest could _read_. H Kanad Maul actually cared about him? Or had he been like Kanan said? Cold and callus and not caring about anyone besides himself? Had he lost that part of himself? Yet...Dogma loved him. They had a bond that shone in the Force. Surely that counted for something. You couldn't form such a loving Force bond with someone you were abusing.

"Yeah, but I was scared," Ezra shrugged.

"Getting scared right then would be natural," Crest shrugged. He swiped on his holopad and pulled up something about Nightbrothers. Ezra rolled his eyes. Why did Crest care so much about how Maul's body worked? He was a Zabrak! Maul worked pretty much like a human. Beyond, you know, the hide and the horns and the eyes and the fact that he could get pregnant. Which was totally _weird_. Ezra wasn't quite as unnerved as, say, Kanan about the fact that Maul loved a guy, but he didn't appreciate see the evidence. "If you hadn't got scared, _that's_ when I woulda been worried."

"You're weird."

"I know." Crest bit his bottom lip and started messing withe the 'pad again. "Comes from the raising, you know?"

"You're not like Rex." Ezra looked at him. "But you have his face and his voice! I thought, you know, you guys were all carbon copies of each other." Because that was how clones worked, right? They were all perfection. All exactly the same with no aberrations among them. They were all supposed to be perfection."

Crest groaned. "Let's not get into this again, please..."

"But I'm curious! And Rex is a great guy, you should be _thrill_ \--"

"I hope you know that is the _exact same line_ of thinking that makes me and Dogma less than a _dog_ ," Crest spat. Anger from him flashed through the Force and he whirled on Ezra. "You can buy a clone for a _hundred karking credits_ on Coruscant! You can buy a broken one for about _five_! So why don't you use those fancy Jedi powers of yours to see if I _think_ like you, if I _feel_ like you, if I _bleed_ like you do, if I want to curl up and cry because Maul will never be the same again! He is my **father**! And I don't like to see him in pain!"

"He's a _Sith_!" Ezra retorted. "And Dogma is a _Jedi-killer_!"

"Yeah, because his General hurt him!" Crest paced the room and rage flowed off of him like water. Ezra jumped back. Crest pinched the bridge of his nose and snarled at him. Ezra grabbed his lightsaber hilt. Crest grabbed his and the two males glared at each other. "I want to give you another scar or cut off your head. I might have this Rex's _face_ and his _voice_ , but I sure as hell ain't **him**!"

"He's nicer than you," Ezra retorted.

Crest turned as he went back to the sickroom. "Yeah, I'll bet he is. But he was raised to worship the Jedi like _gods_." His face darkened and Ezra was suddenly aware of how dangerous a clone trooper was. "But I wasn't. And I'll never worship you."

Ezra watched him stalk off and wondered why it hurt so much to see him go.


	18. Can You Fix Chopper?

If you asked Sabine, there was nothing more annoying than having two extra people on the ship. One of which had a real lightsaber and used it to slash at her until she dropped the Darksaber and gave up. And then he had proceeded to give her the most grueling training session she had ever had in her _life_. Sabine was panting by the end of it and collapsed on the ground. Crest just wiped his forehead off and got a drink of water. She growled under her breath, ashamed at being defeated by a clone, of all beings. A _clone_. Not a real person. Someone who literally shared DNA with well over a million men. Rex was cool, but this Crest...wasn't.

Crest dropped beside her. "You're too small to rely on just slashing the bad guy to pieces."

Sabine hissed and grabbed the water bottle away from him. "Yeah? But I'm gonna be fine. I don't need **your** help!"

"I think you do." Crest sat beside her, cross legged. She noticed the lines under his eyes and wondered why he was staying up so late. What was he doing? Why did he want to do things like this, to get involved with the Sith and the Jedi? He looked...older than twenty years old. He looked like he was an old man, not a twenty year old man. "I hope that Savage can help Maul."

"Why?"

"Because he's my father," Crest softly explained. "I'm adopted, I know. I was pretty aware of that and they never tried to lie to me. Yes, I was raised pretty different from you. I know he killed Pre Vizsla. But there's a little more to the story than that, Wren. There's...a lot more. Vizsla killed someone very close to my father and tried to write it off as the Jedi. Maul knew Vizsla did it, but there wasn't much he could do. As you say, his blood sang to Maul."

Sabine blinked. "Rook never told me that." It made sense, though. And she could understand that. She could understand Maul wanting to avenge a death. He seemed like the type of person to do so. And if Vizsla had killed this person brutally...Maul would be hurt even more. Vizsla had been a Mandalorian's Mandalorian. He'd seen things as black and white, with no shades of grey. If this person hadn't been up to snuff, he would have killed that person. Weather or not Maul saw him as vital to the war effort. "She...just said that Maul was a ruthless killer who...kriffed up Mandalore."

Crest shook his head and looked at the lightsaber. "He's not. He's not bad. He's just...different. And he's not evil."

"I can see." Sabine stood up and left him in the hold. Her wandering brought her to Savage's sick bed. The Nightbrother was sitting up in his bed, breathing heavily. He'd had a holo-pad propped up so he could read a book. But his skin was looking better and his eyes were clear. Sabine saw that his sores had scabbed over. The Zabrak saw her and smiled. "Hey. You look better."

"I feel better." Savage put the holo-pad down and looked at the casts on his legs. "And Hera said I'd be walking in a few days. That will feel good." He coughed a little and cursed under his breath. "But my idiot brother is still too sick for me to go beat to bloody sorrow."

"He doesn't want to get better." Sabine dropped beside him and looked at the holo-pad. She was surprised to see it was a medical textbook. "Um..."

"I trained as a healer before Asajj mind raped me." Savage bit his bottom lip and sighed. "I'd love to catch up on it, but things have changed in leaps and bounds. Some are good, some are bad. At least some of the stuff I used on Dathomir didn't stink to high heaven or leave you with some nasty scars. And bacta is freaking expensive, a long with that." He rolled his eyes and pulled up a pen and a notepad. "I'm not going to hope that my brother didn't wreck the _Scimitar_. To be completely honest with you, he cannot fly."

"A lot of people said that," Sabine replied. She sat and watched as he made notes. "So..."

"I'm stuck in this bed and I might as well get this done with," Savage explained. He grabbed something from the bedside table and Sabine snickered to see reading glasses. "What? So I'm older than you, kid! I need to use these so I can see and I don't exactly trust the Empire. I have my reasons, you have yours. Don't ask, don't tell."

"Don't you care that your _brother_ \--"

"He's doing much better for himself," Savage retorted. He sighed and looked at the other things in the book. "He's married to a wonderful man. He adopted a child. He's mostly happy, probably sane, and he's not chasing a giant snake with a stick."

"Uh..."

"Long story, that." Savage put the tablet down and stretched out. "I'm not getting rid of you, am I?"

"Can you tell me about my father?" Sabine softly asked. She looked down, not expecting for him to answer. After all, Pre had done more than her mother had said. He'd killed someone close to Maul. "I...I don't know that much about him."

Savage nodded and pulled off the glasses. "All right. Then you better have some time, because there's a pretty good bit of material for me to cover."

Sabine nodded and sat on the top of the bed as Savage wove a tale of chaos, honor, murder, and the Clone Wars.


	19. Master and Apprentice

Maul literally had no desire to do anything. He was just feeling...dead inside. He didn't want to do anything that required him getting up. He just felt _bad_. It was like he'd been stuck in one of those extraction traps, like something was sucking his spirit out of him. He wanted to scream and run away, but Dogma's warm body kept him grounded/ There were days that Maul didn't know why the clone didn't let him drift away. Days when Maul wondered why Dogma coaxed him to drink and eat. As a Sith, Maul would have channeled the raw agony into unstoppable power. But it had been the Dark Side that injured Crest and Dogma. Maul knew he couldn't hurt his family. Even though he had been _so close_ to having a child...

That chance would never come to him again, Maul knew. His system was too old and Dogma would be much more careful.

"Hello." Ezra rapped on the open door. Maul groaned. He wanted to kiss Dogma again, that always made the kid yell and run away, but the clone had gone to go deal with his own issues. Maul didn't blame him. He needed to get up and deal with his shit. "But...can you teach me some tricks."

The Zabrak groaned. "No."

"Why not?" Ezra pouted and the boy was almost as good as Crest had been when he was a child. Maul had folded quite a few times to those big, hazel eyes more than once. Ezra had the same thing, just with blue ones. "Am I not good enough to learn from you? Not as much of a Sith? Cause I opened the holocron!"

"So you have a copy of the Book of Sith." Maul glared at him with tired golden eyes. "Why don't you use it?"

"Because I don't know how," Ezra admitted. He entered the room and sat beside him. Maul budged up and fought the instinct to curl up with him. That had been one of the reasons why he'd clung to Dogma. Now, the clone loved the cuddling, almost all clones were a little touch starved, but he needed to get up. Maul would let him go. "And Kanan won't teach me. I need...I need to know, if we run into another Inquisitor."

Maul sighed. "You have too much light in you to ever understand."

"Can't you give me your pain?" Ezra piped up. "I mean, it has to be killing you to live like this! You barely _move_ anymore!"

The red Zabrak looked away and rubbed the dog tags that always stayed around his neck. They had originally belonged to Dogma, but it was a part of a soldier's wedding. They both had rings, of course, smooth golden bands that never came off. But the dog tags were special.  They marked him as mated and loved. He had to be killing Dogma, living like this, but he didn't know what else to do. He felt so very bad and weak. What had he become, from the powerful Sith Lord he had once been? In a way, Maul could say that Obi-Wan had freed him. By cutting off his legs, Obi-Wan had cut off the chains Sidious had bound him with. He had once been a slave...and now he was free. Like the Elomin he had helped free from the lommite mines.

Maul sighed. "My pain would kill you." It was the grief of a parent for a child, something that could never be explained. He hoped that Ezra would never understand it. "And tell Hera to keep away from meltmassif."

"Okay..." Ezra shook his head a little and grabbed the holocron. Maul groaned and tried to resist flopping back. He wasn't getting out of this, was he? All he had to do was bear with it until Ezra got bored and then he could drown himself in misery for a few more hours. Then he caught that thought and _groaned_. He really needed to do something, didn't he? The last thing he needed to do was actually die from misery. Maybe he could annoy Kanan again. Pushing him in Slick's koi pond would actually make him laugh. Though he was very sure that Domga wouldn't approve.

But if Kanan ever went to Shili's Moon, Maul was going to push Kanan in the koi pond. It would be _funny_.

"How did you manage to get that unlocked without a Master helping you?" Maul asked. He sat crosslegged, trying not to get too excited. It wasn't all about throwing lightning and "blowing shit up". (Thank you so _very_ much, Lord Jarrow Rusher). It was also about studying and learning the ways of the Force. It was about learning how to manipulate the very fabric of reality and going to deal with it. And how to "blow shit up" if you had too. Though Rusher liked to do that all the time. "I never could, and it wasn't for lack of trying."

No, because Sidious had tortured him with lightning every time he failed.

Ezra shrugged. "The Force likes me a little too much. Almost like Saint Murphy liking you a little too much."

Maul rolled his eyes. "All right you're cute, I get that. So why don't we get this over with, _before_ I realize why I never took an apprentice?" Because he was so scared that he'd torture that Apprentice like Sidious had tortured him? He had had no idea what to do with Crest until Dogma had helped him. Though their relationship had gone from casual friends to "Hi, I've got a kid that I don't know how to deal with. Help me?". And Dogma hadn't ran, screaming to the hills.

"I just want to know why Kanan says that Sith are the devil incarnate."

_He's been talking to Shistavanen, hasn't he?_

"Because the Emperor is a Sith," Maul shrugged. Judging from the very shocked look on Ezra's face, he'd just blown the boy's mind. "Surely you knew that. That Emperor Palpatine is really my old Master, Lord Sidious." Ezra just stared at the wall, his jaw dropped. Maul grinned a little and waved a taloned hand under the boy's nose. " _Hellllooo_. Ezra the Blueberry. Can't you hear me?" Maul smiled for the first time in weeks before yelling, "Kanan! I think I broke your Padawan!"

"Why am I thinking of _koi_?!" Kanan yelled back. "And winding up, sitting in knee deep water, with a _lily pad_ on my head?!"

_Oops._

Maul shrugged. "Because you're a bat shit crazy not-Jedi!"

"Better than being a bat shit crazy ex-Sith!" Kanan retorted.

"How about this..." Zeb growled. "Yer **all** bat shit crazy!"

For the first time in weeks, Maul laughed.


	20. Tricks of the Trade

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> I'm so sorry to whoever is still reading this!! I've been sick recently, and really busy, so PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE take this as a humble apology from yours truly about not getting her shit done...

Maul had some really cool tricks. There. Ezra had said it. Maybe he was abandoning the whole Jedi Order and going to go as mad as Darth Vader for saying it, but Maul still had cool tricks. How many guys could throw _lightning_? Or _levitate themselves_? Or make random claps of booming thunder that made Zeb almost wet himself? Well, that had been an accident on Maul's part. He had been trying to use said holocron, really a bejeweled edition of a roughed up leather book Maul owned, to teach Ezra how to create random variations in the weather. If the Force really did connect everything (like a giant spider web, if you asked Ezra), then he should have been able to create thunderstorms randomly in the halls of the _Ghost_.

Because why not? It was cool, it was fun, and it also showed him how to do things that Kanan couldn't. And most of the book was about how to do various tricks with the Force. It wasn't about taking over the galaxy and making robot sex slaves out of everyone. Thank Sabine for that image. And then there was the small problem with Savage's body continuing to react to the meltmassif. It wasn't going too well and the yellow Zabra often randomly vomited black tar that felt pure evil in the Force. It was safe to say that Savage's connection to the Force, however slender it had once been, was _gone_.

Maul st with him in the hold, levitating several inches off the ground. According to the little book held open with a cleverly placed blaster, it should have been easy. One of the first things a Sith apprentice learned how to do. As Maul had assured Hera, the only thing at risk here was Ezra's pride. He was going to fall and he was going to bruise his butt. Yeah. Like Ezra was going to take **that** challenge sitting down, because he wasn't. So he followed the breathing exercises written in the book, the visual cues, all of it.

Only to wind up, flat on his back... **again**.

Ezra growled and dusted himself off. This was not fun, nor was it funny. He had  to figure out a way to levitate himself a few inches off of the ground. It couldn't have been that hard! _Maul_ could do it! And he was doing it, and using the time to meditate. Ezra sighed and sat down like that again. It was a good idea to get cross-legged for this, not to sit in a heap. The more compacted your body was, the easier it was to actually lift yourself into the air. Your center of gravity had to do with it, too. Ezra had read from the book that this was supposed to help the apprentice learn to control the Force more. And that was the big difference between Sith and Jedi. Sith _controlled_ the Force. The Jedi _were controlled by_ the Force. Plus, there was an "us-them" mentality about the whole thing.

Politics were boring. Maul could wax poetic about how the Senate used to work. He could also tell you which Senator responded the best to which bribe. And some of those disgusted the Zabrak. For a man who did not mind kissing in front of an audience, Maul could be quite the prude. Ezra still wasn't brave enough to ask about the alien biology textbook. Crest swore they still had it, somewhere.

The young Jedi curled himself up and calmed himself by reaching into the peace that was the Light Side of the Force. He basked in the peace and welcome of it and felt it soothe over his many wounds. All battles left scars, some you just couldn't see, and Ezra had more than his share of them. He'd watched his parents die, for kriff's sake! He still had a hard time believing that the Stormtroopers were still people, underneath it all. He just _couldn't_. The Force quickened around him, as if to remind him that _hate lead to suffering_ , and Ezra went back to trying to levitate. The hardest part about the whole thing was keeping your body connected. And it _killed_ your core. He had a lot to learn about the whole thing.

He got back up to where he needed to be and actually felt himself rise. Ezra almost jumped for joy, but it took him a few minutes to get used to the whole feeling. Ezra tried, he really did, but it became too much for him and he fell down. Just as he heard a new voice laugh.

"Still corrupting the youth, I see," a familiar voice drawled. Ezra ignored Kallus, as he always did.

Maul scrambled up, one hand going to his saberstaff. " _You_."

Kallus shrugged. "Yes, _me_. Now if you have the slightest bit of sense, you'll see that I'm not pulling a Thrawn and trying to kill everyone. I need to speak with Kannan and Captain Syndulla.  It involves our very own Grand Admiral."

Something had changed, Ezra knew. He just wasn't sure what.


	21. Thrawn

Kallus wasn't very high up on Sabine's favorite person list. Maul was down at the bottom, for personal reasons, and Ezra was at the top. Also for personal reasons. There were plenty of days when it felt like the galaxy had decided to just lump her in with all the dregs of the galaxy. And this was one if those days. She just settled on the couch and watched the auburn haired human. Zeb and Savage liked each other, so the Lasat had gathered the big Zabrak up and he was watching Kallus with cool amber eyes. Maul looked like a coiled viper. He had his weapon out where everyone could see it.

Sabine knew from experience that he could use it, too.

Dogma looked at the holograms. "Thought the Imps didn't allow clones and aliens to have rank. Then why in the blue blazes is this Thrawn a General and not pretty slave on someone's floor. Because I know that's about how all you think the aliens are good for."

"Would you _please_ listen?" Kallus hissed. Dogma shrugged.

"Can't help it. I'm married to one," Dogma shrugged. "And I'm a clone. Plus, the last thing I want is for my husband to go fighting your pet enemy and get killed. Or recaptured by his old Master. And you can probably tell that he's lost a baby. What's that old bastard gonna do? Well, since apparently, according to him, Maul failed as a Sith, so he's only good for breeding. The Mandos have a saying about that too. You can't earn a living by your sword, so you earn it by your ass. That old bastard would try to breed him like a karking _nerf_!"

Maul cleared his throat and looked over at his husband. Sabine tried to stifle the laugh softly forming. Dogma's complete lack of respect for authority made her laugh at the best of times. "I am right here, you know. Though I do agree with what you say. We need to have more information on this Thrawn."

Kallus took a deep breath and pinched his nose. Sabine understood how he was feeling. Maul was hard to deal with on the best of days. On the days when he wasn't feeling it, Maul could be as stubborn as a Lupine donkey. There was a reason why Zabrak slaves were taken as babies from the breeding bitch. If they were a fresh catch, they were as stubborn as all get out. Breaking them young made them compliant. Rook had taught Sabine that. Many Imperials saw the aliens as animals, which made it okay for them to be treated that way. Personally, Sabine didn't like it.

"I can give you a full dossier later, complete with his personal habits," Kallus growled. He turned his attention back to Ezra and Kanan. "We do have reason to believe that he wants to eliminate the port city of Ashkelon or even destroy all of Rhea. Even those those are Far Rim, it's still too much for the Imperial navy to have a known pirate hub."

"Clan Storm." Kanan leaned forward. He might have been blind, but he was still smart. "Clan Storm is based off of Rhea, correct? If you blow Rhea up, you destroy the biggest ship base outside of Corellia. And you take out a bunch of pesky pirates in the process. As far as the Imps see it, taking out Rhea is a good idea. Ashkelon? Probably not. That's a fairly large city. Not as big as Galactic City, but still pretty big. They would probably just put it under Imperial control."

Kallus snorted. "You have no idea how much the Empire hates Ashkelon. They'll destroy it and leave Rhea. Never mind that Clan Storm has more than enough cruiser size ships to give several legions a good pause. They might not _lose_ against Clan Storm, but it would be a Pyrrhic Victory. They would almost be slaughtered...and you know they leave limpet mines strewn everywhere."

"Aren't those things banned?" Sabine asked. She remembered her mother griping about it.

"Do you think a pack of pirates cares about trivial things like laws?" Kallus dryly asked. “By their very nature, pirates kill people and steal stuff. It’s not like they are going to stop using a good weapon, just because someone on Coruscant tells them to do so.”

Sabine nodded. It all made sense to her. She was Mandalorian. They understood battle and fighting to the death. A lot of times, the rules were for other people. If this Clan Storm thought so, it was all the better for them. So she settled back and looked at all of the others. Savage looked like he was on pain pills again. Maul looked like he wanted to kill Kallus. And she didn’t blame him.

Kallus looked over at them. “I hope that you know I no longer have a place in the Imperial government. Thrawn figured out who I was pretty quick and then he pretty much decided that I needed to die. I owe it to a friend of mine that I’m even still here to talk to you. But I digress. What we need to do is cripple Thrawn. He’s already on a shaky stance because of his species. He needs his very own KDY moment, just like Grand Moff Leto had. However…they won’t fall for that same trick again.”

“KDY moment?” Dogma asked. Crest looked up from his holobook. “Never heard of that.”

“KDY—stood for Kaut Drive Yards. It was a civilian drive yard that got passed off as a pirate base,” Kallus shrugged. “TIEs bombed the hell out of it, though, and it cost several guys their head and one his job. But we need a moment like that for Thrawn.”

Sabine had little to no idea of what they were talking about, but instinct told her it was dangerous. And if it was…she could easily kill a certain Zabrak and make it look like an accident. Maybe that would finally please her mother and let her father’s restless spirit find a place to rest.

Hot golden eyes met hers and Sabine knew he knew.


	22. Plotting

Maul really didn’t feel like going after some _bar’ve_ named Thrawn. The last thing the battered red Zabrak thought he needed was to go deal with another Imperial. He knew all too well what the Empire would do to his son and husband and resolved to keep away from that cesspit if at all possible. He really wanted to be done with the whole thing. Go back to their nice little house on Eridau and watch the worlds go by. The Empire had no interest in their little family. A clone, a sterile Nightbrother, and a young man who had been raised in two cultures. Maul had even cooked a few traditional meals.

If Dogma could make his mouth catch on fire with the spicy food, Maul could serve him the odd thing of raw, bloody meat. Turnabout was fair play. Maul could be quite the little troll if he felt the need to be.

Dogma shook his head as he looked at the map. “This is such a bad idea. Not even _Krell_ would have tried to pull this one off!” Maul snarled as he heard the Besalisk’s hated name. Dogma ignored him and went over the rest of the notes. “If this son of a bitch is as smart as you say he is, two clones, a Twi’lek, a Mandalorian, a Lasat, two Jedi, and two battered Sith—one of whom has lost his powers—won’t be able to do things! We will get destroyed!”

Kallus shook his head. “All we have to do is bow up his shuttle, since you won’t let me volunteer one of those stupid outposts. No one will miss the Far.”

“But all those Pathfinders won’t be very happy with you,” Kanan sighed. He shook his head and Maul could feel the frustration. “They have a weird way of manipulating the Force. We’re not blowing up the Far.”

“Then End of the Line,” Kallus sighed. He raked his fingers through his beard. “It’s on the Imperial death list anyways. We can’t just kill him. We have to go after him smart. And having Thrawn get his very own KDY moment…”

Vader had been mad that Leto destroyed KYD _because he’d done it without orders_. **Not** that the man had killed **several thousand innocent** people. He would also be mad because Thrawn was going to “go rogue” too. But Maul didn’t want to kill several hundred innocent people. Yes, he knew this was war. Yes, he knew that innocent people would be killed. But he didn’t want to cause that directly. They were playing the Empire against itself. It was a dangerous game, but it had to happen.

“I don’t want to kill thousands of innocent people!” Kanan stood up, annoyed. He glared in Kallus’s general direction and it didn’t take a Force user to know that he wasn’t happy. “That’s wrong! Yes, this is war, but we’re not going to destroy an entire _space station_!”

“The Empire is going to blow it up anyways!” Kallus retorted. “Thrawn is a threat! If he gets his head lopped off because he pulls a Leto, that’s all the better for us! And you think those pirate Clans are going to _care_ that they’ll be spewing mines all over the place? Do you think they’ll _care_ that they’re going to be destroying innocent people! **_No_**! Because that’s the way they work—they kill! They fight! They’ll rip those Destroyers apart with their cannons and they’ll sell the survivor to Zygerria!”

Maul raised his hand. “Can I say something?”

Two faces turned around and a set of blue eyes glared at him. “ ** _No_**!” Two voices snarled in unison. Maul gave them a wry look as he tried to get things in a way he could understand it. Dogma sighed and rubbed his forehead. Maul forced himself up, cursing the emptiness that consumed him now. After all, he had lost a child, something he would never get back again. That would always be with him, along with the visions of his little girl.

Maul found Sabine in the kitchen. She was angrily spearing a redfruit with her knife. They looked similar to Soleilin tomatoes, but Maul could tell the sharper, more acidic smell. He tapped her shoulder. “Get Ezra. We need to talk.”

“Why?” Sabine glared at him with hot eyes. She shook her multicolored hair and gave him the death glare. “Why do I want to do anything with _you_?”

“Because I have a plan to kill Thrawn.” Maul reached back to his old training and what he knew of the Traditions. “Would you accept his blood in substitute as mine?” If that didn’t fail, the other option was her slicing his palm with a knife. Maul actually wanted to live.

Sabine nodded slowly. “Only if I get to strike the killing blow.”

Maul nodded. “That could be arranged. But get Ezra quickly. They’re arguing and we need to leave.” Maul leaned against the counter and felt a solid presence along his back. A familiar scent reached his nose and Maul smiled softly. The clone filled a gap in him that Maul hadn’t even known he’d had. “Hello, my love.”

“What,” Dogma asked, gently nipping his ear, “are you planning?” A hand reached up and encircled the base of his horn before drawing backdown. The red Zabrak groaned and shuddered. He looked over at Dogma with pleading eyes. The clone laughed softly and drew back. He ignored the angry growl Maul shot him. “You’re planning something.”

“And you’re going to take me to the edge…?” Maul glared at Dogma and the clone just laughed and kissed his lips gently.

“What are you planning?” Dogma softly asked. “I don’t want to lose you, love. I’ve almost lost you one and I almost lost you on the Crag. I don’t think I could live if you died…” He swallowed softly and looked at him with soft hazel eyes. “You’re my mate, Maul. You know…my life is entwined with yours, now.”

Maul sighed and looked down. What could he do? He loved Dogma, but he had to get rid of Thrawn. Thrawn was his way to being redeemed by Dogma’s people. Clones placed a great emphasis on family…and Maul had never had one before he’d met the man he loved. It was so hard for him, trying to do all of this.

He shot Dogma a helpless look as he watched the floor. “I love you.” And that was the truth. But what could he do, beyond trying to make this right? Maul turned away before Dogma could see the tears falling from his eyes. “I love you.”

Dogma pulled Maul into a hug and kissed his cheek. “I know, Maul. I’ve known for years…and that’s why I’m going with you to kill Thrawn.”


	23. Substitute

Sabine really wasn't sure what she wanted to do. Did she want to take Thrawn's blood instead of Maul's? But how could she, a mere girl, kill one of the most powerful Force users known to exist? And Maul had been through so much. Who was she to just kill him off? He hadn't done anything to her. Not yet. Yes, he had killed Pre Vizsla, but that had been years before Sabine was able to remember things. Who was she to judge him for what he had done? It had been a matter of survival. Pre would have killed him. Even Savage backed Maul up on that. He had been there that awful day.

And he said that it was torture to die.

Sabine walked through the _Ghost_ , listening as the adults bickered. It wasn't going to get better, was it? Kallus wasn't supposed to be there with them. He wasn't a good guy. He was a rebel, yes, but Kallus was motivated by revenge and not by what was pure and right. What about Sabine, though? Didn't she want revenge for Mandalore? How her Scared Mountains had been mined out and her people used as slaves? Or how they had been forced to stop their traditions of being bounty hunters and Warriors? Fett had said that they needed to keep under the LADAR until the Empire ran it's course. But he was no Mandalore. Boba Fett had always been a _payt kar'ta_ , a "leaving heart". Or a "wandering heart" if you used the poetic translation.

Ezra was sitting on his bunk, looking at a holocron. Sabine thought it was the one Kenobi had given to him and there was a funny story about Maul getting frustrated with it (he couldn't get it open) and he had thrown it into the walls. There was still a dent. Hera had come undone, but Maul had just shrugged it off. Not for the first time, Sabine wondered what would have happened if Maul hadn't been doused in meltmassif. Would have not have known until it was too late? Or he felt it in the Force? She shrugged off the thoughts and watched the Jedi in front of her. Ezra had shaved off his hair recently, and he looked far older than he used too. Personally, Sabine had liked the other hair.

"It was getting a pain to deal with." Ezra sighed and slipped off the bunk. He grasped Sabine's hand in his own and gave her a soft smile. Despite the different hair, this was still Ezra. He ran a hand over his hair to touch the brutally short haircut. "And kinda getting away in a fight. Since I really don't want to die, I decided to cut it off. Besides, yours is short!"

"But we all know that it's short," Sabine sighed. She shook her head and moved to sit down. Ezra followed her, a question in his blue eyes. She gave him a quick kiss on the cheek before settling beside him. "Yours is supposed to be long, _nuhunla senaar_." Ezra still had no idea that she was calling him "silly bird". It was a pet name of hers and she liked using it. For all his trying, Ezra still didn't get _Mando'a_. It was rather funny to her. "You? You're supposed to have long, shaggy hair! Hell, Kanan has a pony tail! Where did you get the razor from, anyways?"

Ezra shook his head. "It doesn't matter. But what does matter is why you came here. What harebrained scheme has Maul cooked up now? Because you saw how well the last one worked out!" Ezra paused, with uncharacteristic spite in his voice. "Maybe this one will kill him. He's a Sith. You can't trust him. I just wish Dogma could see that...he's such a mess...and then there's Crest."

"You mean Crescent Moon?" Sabine teased. She got that he was a clone, but there were better thing you could name yourself than "Crescent Moon". Crest had probably been a young child when he named himself. She saw Ezra flush a little and gave him a light kiss on the cheek. Just to remind him who he was with. Things had been crazy recently. She hadn't been able to have time with him recently, thanks to that dang Zabrak and his mate. But if they killed Thrawn...when he needed to be destroyed...that could be done...the plan had merits. "But Maul wants to stab Thrawn."

Ezra gave her a wry look. "He's a Sith. Thrawn is a member of the Empire. They should get along great!" He gave her a crooked smile and elbowed Sabine in the ribs. "Besides, is it really bad to lie to a Sith?"


	24. The Call of the Dark

Ezra knew this was a bad idea. Maul couldn't be trusted. He was a Sith and Sith were evil. They killed people. They destroyed the galaxy. Maul might have shone him a few interesting tricks, but he had to go. He wasn't going to last long if Ezra had anything to say about it. Obi-Wan had told him about everything Maul had done. About the death of Qui-Gon Jinn. About the death of Satine Kryze, Finn Ertay, Tiplar, and a hundred others. Maul had made a living out of killing Jedi. It was only right that a Jedi should kill him. And Obi-Wan said that Zabrak Jedi counted death a blessing. There were breeding kennels out there. Savage? He didn't deserve that. But Maul _did_. He had spent his life destroying life. It was only right that he should give life **back**.

Maul was sterile. That was what the doctors said. But Ezra had seen the blood and heard the anguished cries when the medics said he'd lost a child. It might have been a promise, but Maul should have felt it. If he had **cared** about that baby, he would have _known_.

He slipped against the wall of the _Scimitar_ ,  looking at the holocron in his hands. He had gotten it open, but with the help of a woman named Fey. She hadn't been too pleased to help him. The Force had sang around her, though, telling a tale of daring do and chaos. Fey would die as she lived, a sword in her hands. Ezra felt no guilt for leading her to her death. "Case", whoever he was, was likely dead. The Empire didn't take prisoners. Neither Case no Scrap would live very long. They had been destroyed...and Fey would go mad with grief. She was no Sith nor a Jedi. And yet...it had been her touch that allowed him to open the holocron.

 _A Master and an Apprentice, but something tells me Fey would never be my Master_.

Ezra scowled as he thought and turned the thing over in his hands. The _Book of Sith_. Such a small tome. Holographic, not like the leather bound thing Maul had. Ezra had looked at it, running his hands over the anguished words. Had the book been a sort of diary for the Sith? Had he just been reading it because he could? Writing probably hadn't been forbidden by his Master. Maul could have just been trying to deal with his past. With his training. Ezra had looked at the  book a few times before he dismissed it. Maul wouldn't care if he had opened the holocron. For a man with a saberstaff, he was a push over. There was a reason why he'd been defeated on Naboo. Maul had been too weak to do what he needed to do.

And so he had been abandoned. It was the way of the Sith.

"You would do well to take him on." Ezra didn't have to look over the see the Pau'an sitting beside him. The Inquisitor, a man who had once been a Jedi but had used the Dark to get the power he deserved. The Force ghost dropped beside him. "I really don't like Thrawn. He doesn't understand the Force, you know. Thinks they're all like that Fey you found. Crazy smugglers, looking for a good time. Importing spice, exporting marijuana. Doing all the things that the DTF, despite the fact that it's integrated, can't make them stop. Maul is weak. He's a little rat who survives by lurking in the shadows."

Ezra didn't look at him. "I thought you weren't talking to me. Dathomir, remember? The stupid ghosts?"

"Yes. They did give me a sort of half-life." The Force ghost shrugged. He was floating over the ground, though. The Sith Interceptor they were taking had been outfitted for a small family to live in. With some room to spare. Maul also had a speeder bike. It was a little bit of an older one, but it looked like it had been treated with love and respect. Maul could have done anything with it. "The witches do good work, though. But Maul...he's never been grateful. Neither has that brutish oaf of a brother he has. Though the witches did get a few children from him."

"Better tell Savage." Ezra stood up. He closed his eyes and the yellow drained from them. The Inquisitor gave him a smile before starting to fade. Ezra took another breath and started practicing his _katas_. If he was going to save the galaxy, he needed to know how to fight. Maul had showed him a few of his, but the Zabrak was a different species. He moved differently. He had been trained to use his body different than Ezra had. He had killed for years. Ezra had just stolen things to survive. The darkness clung to Maul like a cloak. As for Dogma...the clone had seen his better years. He'd just fade off into the distance with the rest of them. What good were aged clones?

None.

He stepped into the hallways, the holocron a heavy weight on his hip. Maul was just messing around, trying to get ready for the battle. He would be trying to tell Thrawn he was there to serve him. It might have dipped down into other things. Maul knew what to do. Dogma knew what he was going to have to do. Ezra would be calling on the Dark to destroy the menace that was Darth Maul. What else could the galaxy want? He was going to fulfill the Jedi Code...Ezra was going to kill the first Sith threat that he could.

And then...what could he not reach?


	25. Whispers in the Stars

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I know that you're as confused as hell, but just know this--I had some plot bunnies handed to me by a friend (along with chips and salsa. Makes me write faster) and I'm playing with those. And I'm sorry for the delay in posting...I had no internet at my house until last night
> 
> But I hope this makes things clearer for my beloved readers

Maul could usually tell when his beloved safe haven had been invaded. It was a skill honed by his years in slavery to his Master. Maul had an almost sixth sense when someone had touched his stuff. He growled softly and looked through the collection of stuff that he had collected over the years. A piece of Dogma's armor. A shard of Sacage's horn. A carved jade _medza_ figure from Shili's Moon. Rocks from Dathomir. An odd collection of Sith Amulets and talismans he'd picked up from all over. Star stone from Soliel. An old journal that he had found on Korribaan. Just odds and ends of junk he'd been collecting for sixty years. Dogma often laughed that Maul was the younger one of the pair, biologically speaking.

The red Zabrak looked through his vault, frowning softly. Something was off. Maul had never bothered reading the old journal, as it was written in Old Basic. He _could_ read the script, but it gave him a headache and he preferred New Basic. The Zabrak looked through his collection. Dogma's old breastplate was hanging where it always did. The jade was still there. So was everything but the journal and one of the Amulets. Maul bit his bottom lip and started looking through his stuff. Dread pooled in his stomach. He had a good idea where that stuff had gone. Maybe they weren't that dangerous, but the journal was filled with Dark Side teaching. And the Amulet was a sarsenstone pendant. It _naturally_ conducted the Dark Side.

If Ezra had grabbed that thing...there could be problems.

Maul grabbed his saberstaff and went through the _Scimitar_. The last time he'd felt this scared was when he'd been fifteen and stepping into Corg Hive Seven. Like anyone faced with prison, he'd gone straight to the HoloNet. And he'd looked up ways that Zabraks were treated. He'd been a virgin, yes, and stayed one, but he'd been terrified of what the guards would do him. Maul had been fought in the pits instead. There he had learned to kill without the Force. He had also learned how to make bombs out of kitchen supplies, pleasure a woman, and make knives out of bone. He had also killed a wolf-worm, but that was another story. The Zabrak tried not to shiver as he walked down to the hold. Something was off here and it resonated in the air.

It was like the stars themselves were giving him a warning. Maul brushed it off and pushed into the hold. He scanned around it, his eyes like flickering spots of gold. He drew back his lips, baring his fangs. He could _feel_ Ezra. He could _feel_ the wrongness in the Force. He wanted to get out of here, but he needed to find out what was going on. Maul pressed into the hold deeper and looked around. He needed to find the padawan before something horrible happened. He knew what that Amulet could do. It warped your thinking. Made you a mad animal. Once you had a target...it honed in on the prey and wouldn't let you rest until he/she/it was dead. Maul knew that feeling all to well. He had killed a man to get that thing. He'd also been meaning to destroy it.

"Ezra?" He poked his head behind a pile of crates. Something grated on him as he walked around. Maul didn't like it. He just wanted to get this over and done with. "Ezra! I don't care if you have the stupid journal! It's the Amulet that's going to hurt you!"

"And why would a Sith like you care?" Ezra's voice slipped over his ear like smooth silk. Maul jerked around, trying to find him. But he could see nothing. Instead, all he saw was just the blank nothing of the hold. Maul squinted and looked around. Nothing but shadows and crates. He turned the lights on with a flick of the wrist. Ezra sneered. "Nice try, but your little party tricks aren't going to save you. You're a failure, you know? Maybe your Master _should_ have sold you. Like he did his _first_ Apprentice."

Maul didn't bat an eye. "He didn't though." The red looked around for the voice. He most likely had a Jedi trying to be a Sith'arii and bend the light. Not only was that a draining thing to do, it was also dangerous. "He just left me to die instead. You know all the doctors said that my womb was destroyed in that attack? And that the bad legs didn't do anything to help?" He had cried the first time he learned that he couldn't have children. Until...he _had_. But that child was dead and would never come back. "Ezra. You're trying to be a White Hair. And trust me...it doesn't work."

A blue lightsaber flared to life. Maul jumped back and grabbed his saberstaff. Ezra see,ed to melt out of the air and yellow flared in his eyes. It wasn't the honey gold of Maul's, but it was the sick yellow of a Sith. Maul swore and activated the blade. Ezra flew at him, hard and fast. Maul defected his strikes. A close jab almoat got him in the ribs. Maul shoved the boy with the Force. Ezra fought back with it. He shoved Maul over. The Zabrak stumbled. He wasn't as steady on his feet, his body not recovered from the miscarriage. Ezra took the opportunity and hit Maul in the head with a metal box. Maul _screamed_ as three of his horns were shattered. He tried to pick himself up, swaying on his feet.

Ezra yanked one of the side ones with the Force. Maul howled in agony as the weak base gave way. Sheer pain flooded his body. He dropped down, shaking. Ezra was holding one of his horns, dripping with blood. He watched as the rich, red drops spattered on the floor. The sarsnenstone seemed to mock him. It had caused this. Maul called to the Force with shaky hands and tried to grab the weapon. Ezra snarled and moved. Back. But something changed in his yellow eyes and he dropped down. Maul tried to get away from him, but his head burned in pain.

He had to destroy the Amulet. **_Had too_**.

The young human stroked down Maul's sides and found where the metal met his body. "You know," Ezra murmured. "They sure did a good job." He stood up and cast Maul a sly smile. "I'd like to see the rest of it one day."


	26. The Dark Saber

Sabine could tell something was up. She knew enough about the Force to be able to put that together. It didn't take a genius to tell that something had gone down between Ezra and Maul. Were they destined to fight? One was a Sith and the other a Jedi. Sabine remembered how Maul had been after the death of his child, how he had just given up on life. If he was able to feel sorrow, couldn't they save him? There was something left of his soul, Sabine just knew it. Yes, he was a Sith. Yes he had killed people. But so had she! Sabine was _Mando'ade_. She had sen how parts of Mandalore were devastated by war and saw how they had forced the young Mandalorians to go to Imperial Academies.

She and Ketsu had killed more than one stormtrooper when they escaped the Academy on Mandalore. She was not above packing her grenades full of shrapnel. That stuff shredded plasticoid armor. Rex said that it had been a leading killer of clones during the war. So she was no stranger to violence and killing. But...she knew Maul. She had read his scribbled notes in the meditation book, found a report from the doctor. It looked like he had cried over it. Why? She had no idea. Sabine _knew_ Maul now, _knew_ why he didn't just give it up. He had been fighting the Empire for longer than anyone knew. And maybe...maybe she had learned how to respect the man. He had taught her how to use the Dark Saber.

Sabine pulled the weapon from her hilt as she walked through the ship. Maul had maps upon maps. Some were holographic, others were actual painted animal hide, he even had what looked like printed tourist brochures. There was even one for "Adventure Mountain", a popular fun park on Teardrop. Sabine had tried not to laugh when she found it. It was a little much to imagine a young Crest going bonkers over the rides, Maul in a tourist shirt and hat (he had to have the hat), and Dogma in shorts. Probably driving everyone crazy about sunscreen, too. Because that was just the way the clone was. He got upset over stuff that everyone else just rolled with it. The two men were so different that Sabine wondered why they had married.

She walked through the ship, looking around for her friend. "Hey, Ezra!" She knocked on his door and listened. Nothing. Huh. That was a little odd, so Sabine tried again. She actually picked the lock after a few. "Ezra! Ready or not, here I come!" He had tried the same thing on her a few months before and got nailed with a paint can over it. Turn about was fair play. She looked around the empty room and shrugged. "Guess he went to bother Maul into teaching him something cool." All Maul had taught him so far was how to levitate. "Maybe I can go watch."

The Mandalorian left the room after a few minutes and walked down to the hold. The ship was oddly quiet. Sabine frowned a little. Ezra had mentioned seeing if he could find any of Maul's treasures. The Zabrak turned out to be quite the pack rat and had a hoard of childish doodles from Crest and poor love poetry from Dogma. And...what looked to be a dried rose. Sabine wondered if Dogma knew just what Maul kept. Because it sure looked like he had a problem with getting rid of stuff. She shook her head to get rid of the thoughts and entered the hold. Sabine activated the Dark Saber and watched as a blade that looked as if it had been ripped from the heart of the Void flew into her hands. She grinned. Now that was _cool_.

The training mats were rolled up in the corner. Sabine shook her head and looked over at them. They were still up where she had put them up there. Now **that** was odd. If Ezra wasn't training and he hadn't found the food...what was he doing? He couldn't have decided he was going to get rid of Maul...could he? The Zabrak was much more powerful than he looked! He had survived being sliced in two, for kriff's sake! He knew how to survive and wouldn't let some pip squeak Jedi kill him. This was getting weirder by the minute and Sabine wasn't sure that she wanted to see it.

If something was wrong with Maul, Ezra was their last line of defense.

"Sabine." Ezra appeared from behind a stack of crates. A strange amulet glowed around his neck, making his eyes look like they were a sticky yellow. Sabine shivered and looked at him. Was there... _blood_...on the young Jedi? Just what had Ezra been doing in here? She needed to get to the bottom of this. "I did it. I took him out. I took out the Red Demon. We're gonna be rich!" There was something crazed in his eyes. "Enough for you to buy your way back into House Vizsla!"

"Ezra?" Sabine asked, dreading the answer. "Who did you call? I need to know."

"Who else would buy the Red Demon?" Ezra shrugged. "I sold him to Thrawn."

It was as if the very air had been sucked out of her lungs. Sabine stared at him. She couldn't believe it. Ezra had sold Maul. Didn't he know that they were enemies of the Empire, too? Didn't he know that they were all gonna be captured? She looked at Ezra in horror, trying to keep her features calm. It had to be whatever Sith jewellery he was wearing. What else would make him take out a man who had only tried to help him?

Sabine shook her head and got ready for a fight. "Ezra," she softly said, "what have you _done_?"


	27. Siren Song

Ezra had no idea why Maul kept such a valuable thing hidden in an old safe. It had been stuck in the back, under a collection of paperback books called "Adventures in Wild Space". Why Maul didn't wear the stupid thing was beyond him. Yes, Ezra knew that it was ugly. It was a blocky, square thing. Made of a dull grey stone with streaks of black running through it before being set with a blood red ruby in the center. And it hung on a twisted black chain. So it wasn't the prettiest thing in the galaxy, that was for sure. But Ezra had felt it pulling him, even throughout the ship. He had found it after a desperate search. And now, resting just above his heart...it gave him the power to conquer galaxies if he felt like it.

The Empire would pay for the destruction of Lothal, for the deaths of his friends, for taking his parents from him. It would pay for destroying the Jedi Order, for hijacking the clone army. But first...Ezra had to get close. And what better way to do so than offering up his rival to the man who wanted him? True, Dathomirian bred Zabraks were very rare these days. Dooku had made sure to kill as many of them as he could. But Zyggeria had came through and bred a line of them. Enough escaped to form what looked to be Dathomirian Zabraks. Iridonia Zabraks, though, were as common as humans. Maul, with his brilliant red hide and lack of hair, was Dathomirian. He was quite valuable to certain people.

Kill three birds with one stone. Kill Thrawn, get rid of Maul, and avenge his parents. That was all Ezra wanted to do. The Amulet, and the Force ghost that hung around it, would help him. He just had to be strong enough to tame the damn thing.

A large cruiser docked with the smaller _Nightbrother_. Ezra offered Sabine a cocky grin before he froze her with a flick of his hand. All of these were tricks that no one would teach him. How to freeze people. How to mesmerize. How to hide from others and make illusions. Even how to enchant things like a Shadow Knight. All of that knowledge was at his fingertips. Ezra just had to learn how to access it. And with Maul out of the way...he had access to one of the most complete collections of Force lore in the galaxy. The Zabrak at his feet moaned after a few minutes, his golden eyes fluttering open. Ezra took the shattered piece of Maul's horn and tipped his head up. Hazy golden eyes met blue ones.

"You've lost your touch, old man." Ezra dropped his head and kicked the battered piece of horn to the side. He thought of Savage and Dogma, still on the ship. Well, Savage was still weak and resting off the meltmassif. And Dogma was a saint if he could get his way out of the locked storage room. Ezra wondered if the older clone had enough of his programming left to where he'd obey Ezra. He walked through the ship quickly, coming to the airlock. A part of Ezra hissed and rebelled, telling him not to do this, but Ezra crushed it without a second thought. He had a job to do. And there were more ways than one to skin a cat. Ezra took a simple piece of quartz, maybe part of a weapon, and whispered words of the Force. The crystal darkened in his palm before it became as clear as water.

The second Thrawn put it in his pocket, it would start to poison him. Who said that Shadow Knights were the only ones to create untraceable assassinations?

He walked through the ship quickly. He had a job to do. It was time to do it. Ezra met the part of stormtroopers with a bow to his head. The man they saw was at least thirty, blonde, tall, blue eyes, brown hair. They would never know they saw Ezra Bridger in the flesh. He still walked on, though, and tried to keep a sense of urgency about him. Maul was not an easy man to catch or carry. And that was why they were taking him.

One of the stormtroopers kicked Maul's prone body with his boot. "That's the one," he muttered. He turned to the rest of his squad. "You, you, and you! Get the prisoner to his feet and take him to the Force dampening cell!" He turned back to Ezra and bowed his head. "How much do I owe you? You did the Empire a great favor, sir, getting that scum off the streets."

Ezra bowed. "Tell your Grand Admiral that my reward will be the gift of this rare Lirian Crystal to himself and three hundred thousand credits to my accounts." Since the bounty on Maul was well in the millions, the stormtrooper wasn't going to argue. He took the crystal, secured it in a pouch, and transferred the credits to Ezra's account. Ezra nodded and watched as the shuttle took off. He didn't bat an eye, not even as an agonized wail tore through the ship. He could feel the spike of anguish in the Force. Ezra shrugged as he went to the cockpit. There were reasons why you shouldn't take a powerful Sith as your mate. One of them, Ezra knew, was the fact that the law would win. It might take a few years, but the law would win.

He locked himself in a room after unfreezing Sabine and started to meditate. It was time for his plan to start. Thrawn would be dead, Maul would be in chains (where he belonged), and the Empire would lose their best Admiral. Ezra looked down at his Amulet and smiled. Who knew he would like this little thing so very much? And Maul...the Zabrak was such a fool. He deserved what had come to him by a thousand percent.


	28. Blast From the Past

Maul awoke with a splitting headache. The first thing he was aware of was how the world seemed to ring around him, if that made any sense. He could _feel_ himself roll and yaw with the natural motion of the ship. That was one thing that never changed--ships moved. If they were in water, or were in space, they rolled. It was called "pitch" and "yaw". Maul had actually been in a real sailing ship once, a long time ago. He'd wobbled all over the deck as the crew laughed. His Master still didn't know about that day. If he had...Maul didn't want to think of what would have happened. Beatings were **nothing** compared to the punishments his Master dished out. His Master had hit him with lightning and made Maul think he was being fried alive.

He should have spent days in a medical bay after that torture. Maul hadn't. He'd been thrown out just hours later, his Master telling him to kill the Whiphid prince Sol-Ti-Arrra-Mi. He'd been captured, of course, and the prince had taken Maul as his personal plaything. Sol came to the rapid conclusion that Zabraks and cold did not mix. And Maul's body was very resilient...it could handle large amounts of trauma. Including dilation that would have killed a human. Maul had eventually managed to kill Sol, but not after weeks of torture and abuse. He had knelt in front of his Master, though, holding the dead prince's head in his hands. For his pains, Maul had received  a pat on the head and a case of protein bars. Again, Maul had been barely walking. He needed time in the medical bay, but he hadn't gotten it.

"I thought you were...larger," a voice drawled. It was cold and hard, the voice of a Warrior. A man who preferred not to talk. A man like Maul had once been, but he wasn't anymore. The Zabrak groaned and pulled the thin, scratchy blankets over his head. He was tired and that other person could kriff off because Maul wasn't going to mess with him anytime soon. "More impressive. Muscular, even. And your tattoos are as meaningless as the marks of a common Zyggerian slave, I'll have you know. From my studies, I know they mean as little as the ridges on the skin of a Jotnar."

Maul blinked. "You're smart," he slurred. Maul tried to get up, but the world spun around him. "My head hurts. You have an...an...what is the word? You have an aspirin? Yeah. I need one of those cause my head feels like a bull bantha played headbutt with it." He fell back in a heap and looked at the ceiling. "Water would be nice too. I don't like taking pills dry. Plus I really need to piss."

"You talk to much," the man muttered. He was blue skinned, with cold red eyes, and spiky black hair. He cleared his throat after a few minutes. "All the holos have you as a strong, silent type. Not one to spit blithering drivel at random. No, you may **not** have an aspirin until I know what it does to your system. I suspect that it's very damaged, am I correct? You were sliced in two and you've had several major surgeries. At least, that's what your medical records say."

"I get hurt a lot." Maul rubbed his forehead and registered that he couldn't feel the Force. He swore under his breath and looked around. This didn't feel right. He didn't like it. He needed to get out of here and figure out where he was. The Zabrak stood on shaky legs, thanking the stars that his droid legs could at least get him propped up. He put his hands on the plexi-glass, trying to think for a little bit. "You know, I think I know you. Did we ever try to kill each other during the Clone Wars? Because you look like I know you and I want to make sure I never tried to cut your head off or something." According to Dogma, that made people not like you anymore. Maul would take his word for it. "You look like the strong, silent type, ya know."

"You tried to destroy my ship," the man said after a few minutes. "You planted bombs in my Star Destroyer and came damn close to blowing my reactor to the Far Reaches and back. That tends to make an impression on people...and not a good one."

Maul blinked. "I don't remember that, to be honest. And who are you?" He really didn't know this guy and it might make a little bit of a problem. Because Maul needed to get out of this cage and common sense said that this cat had the keys.

"I'm the Admiral Thrawn." The man leaned down, his sharp red eyes tracking over Maul's red skin. The Zabrak swore a little and tried to push himself back. His legs weren't working all that well. The Zabrak almost panicked before he forced himself to calm down. Maul had faced worse, after all. His legs hadn't saved him when he lost his child. The Chiss watched him with cool eyes as Maul tried to get up. "I took the liberty of deactivating your legs. We can't have you getting out, can we? And, Maul, you need to get everything replaced in one go. That gives you so many more options."

The red Zabrak glared at him before looking down. "What do you want from me, Thrawn? I don't have any credits and I'm in no shape to fight you." He sighed and crossed his arms over his chest. "I...lost a child. It almost killed me. I can't fight for you, so you understand? I'm in no shape to fight and I'm infertile. I can't have your kids and, if you try, I'll rip your dick off with my claws." He spread his very long claws out into a fan. His fingertips were studded with long, ragged looking black claws. All Zabraks had long claws. And they could use them. "I'm not going to bow to you, Thrawn. I have better things to do with my time."

_I have a mate and a son to take care of._

Thrawn just smiled at him. "You were promised to me, you know. And I'm going to make good on what your old Master told me I could have. And that...includes you." The red Zabrak felt his hearts stop and he looked at the Chiss in dread. "I know you can be a good boy, Maul. I just know it."


	29. Wake Up, Oh Sleeper

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> I have no excuses for the late update beyond the fact that I'm a lazy ass. So here, enjoy one of the final chapters in this sea of madness!

She needed to get Dogma out. If there was one person who could talk sense into a deranged Sith, it was Dogma. He had _married_ one, for Manda's sake! Surely Maul had his episodes when he was completely mad and going off the rails, right? Right? Or had Maul had enough sense not to go playing with dangerous artifacts? There was no telling what that Zabrak did, she knew. He was dangerous, but it was the good type of dangerous. The type of dangerous that knew how to neutralize a threat. It was the kind of thing a Mandalorian like herself could appreciate. Sabine swallowed and looked at the creature in front of her. Physically, Ezra looked the same as he always did. He had the same dark hair, the same tawny skin, the same scars, and the same eyes. But those eyes were now shot through with flecks of red gold and they looked _dangerous_.

Ezra watched as the ship departed, his eyes cold and hard. "You know, I just did what the entire Jedi Order couldn't. What good were they, if they couldn't deal with a half assed, failed Sith like " _Darth_ " Maul?" He sneered, his new eyes dark and cold. Sabine edged back, looking for a good way to go find a certain clone. "A bunch of doddering old fools. Why do you trust a free army?"

"They were desperate." A very welcome face walked into the hold, hazel eyes cold and hard. Dogma was holding a battered looking cylinder, it's sides scored with the remains of countless battles. Dogma's thumb hovered over what looked to be an activation stud. Ezra took a step back. If Sabine had to guess, it looked like Dogma had a lightsaber. The clone _growled_ at Ezra, his eyes blazing with toxic flames. Ezra took a step back. "They had to do something about the droid armies, _Bridger_. It was before your time, but I personally saw what was left of Valkyrie Station. They left _nothing_. Just a charred, burnt husk that exploded seconds after we left it. The droids were quite the threat."

Ezra sneered, but Sabine could see the fear in his eyes. He drew his lightsaber, the blue blade a familiar glow. It calmed her, almost, until she remembered who was wielding such a deadly blade. Ezra looked at Dogma with cold, clear eyes. "You seem to know quite a bit about the Jedi. But why should I trust you? You killed your General. You murdered him in cold blood."

Dogma didn't blink. "Because no jury in the galaxy would convict a Jedi Knight of sexual harassment." He activated the blade. Was Sabine surprised when she saw a red blade come out of the hilt? No, she couldn't say that she was. But she ha no idea where Maul would get such a beat up lightsaber hilt. He had his own! He didn't need two! Now, Savage didn't have a weapon and she wondered if the blade Maul used now once belonged to his brother. It would make sense if it did... Why would he use it, though? To remind himself of a failure? Dogma brought the weapon up into a fighting stance. He bowed his head, clearly ready to fight. "Take the Amulet off, kid. All it's going to do is hurt you."

The padawan swung at him. Dogma ducked aside. His lightsaber came at the other male, slicing Ezra in the arm. Ezra hissed. He ran at Dogma. The clone ducked beside a pile of crates, trying to get out of the way. Ezra swiped at him. Dogma parried the blow, trying to keep from killing the padawan. Ezra screamed and hit Dogma with lightning. The clone dropped to the ground, hands over his heart. His back bowed up in agony and he let out a wail of pain. Ezra kept it up. The look on his face was **evil**. Sabine activated her Dark Saber. She rushed at him, trying to get him away from the writhing clone. Ezra yowled at her. He whipped around and sent the saber at her face. She parried the blow and tried to send him back. Ezra snarled.

He rushed at her. She darted away. Blue light almost took her head off. Sabine whipped around as best she could and jabbed. The Force picked her up, off her feet, and hurled her into the wall. Sabine collided with a sickening _thump_! She slid down the wall and landed in a heap. Ezra very calmly walked over, ignoring the gasping clone in the back. Slowly, very slowly, Dogma picked himself up. The look in his eyes was cold and hard as he grabbed the lightsaber on the floor. Sabine tried to ignore him. Instead, she grabbed at Ezra's collar and mashed their faces together.

In a perfect case of hindsight being 20/20, she would look back on this, years later, and wonder why Ezra hadn't skewered her.

With her free hand, she undid the knotted leather. Before Ezra could react, Sabine smashed the stone under her boot heel. Ezra arched his back up. He started clawing at himself, wailing in agony. Dogma stood over him, lightsaber raised like a killing angel. Sabine had never seen a look like his: cold and cruel and hard. It was the face of a killer, not of the funny, kind man she knew and loved. Ezra fell in a heap upon the cold metal floor, his breathing gasping out. Sabine tried to grab him up. Dogma ignored the padawan. Instead, he took the lightsaber and cracked the hilt over his knee. With smooth, practiced fingers, he drew the crystal from it's sheath and ground it beneath his boot heal.

Dogma spun on his heels. "See to it that the Jedi is locked in the brig," he ordered. He gave Sabine a look, his face cold and cruel and haughty. "I'm going to see about finding my husband." He turned on his heels and walked away.

Sabine pulled Ezra up, shaking from the strain of it all.

Ezra looked at her with horrified eyes. "Sabine...what have I done?"


	30. Shattered On the Inside

It was a blur, all of it.

Ezra had no idea what had just happened, beyond the fact that Maul had a magic, singing rock in his horde of treasures. There hadn't been much else. Just a few old papers from when Crest was a kid, a dried rose or two, and horrible love poetry from Dogma. When he had found the Amulet, the stone that had sang to him, Ezra wasn't even sure why he put it on. But when he had, it had felt like all his dreams could come true. It was far greater than the moon water he had drank on Mandalore. Just to talk with his dead parents, he had taken one of the most deadly rituals known to exist. His father hadn't been pleased with him, but the man had understood. He knew how much Ezra wanted to talk to them, to see them again. He just didn't need to go drinking semi-deadly poisons to see them. His father had said they were part of the Force now and always watching him.

Sabine didn't talk to him as she lead him to the brig. No matter how much he begged and pleaded, she still ignored him. Her face was ashen, sallow. It was like she had seen some sort of evil Force ghost. Ezra himself felt the stench of the Dark Side on him. How far had he fallen? What had he done? If only they would just tell him... The young Jedi sank down against the cold, steel wall, face in his hands. He had _failed_. All he'd wanted to do was take out Thrawn and save a few planets. But even **that** failed. Why? Ezra wasn't sure. He just knew that something had gone terribly wrong. He couldn't feel Maul anywhere. No matter how hard he reached out, he couldn't feel the cool, soothing presence of their resident Sith Lord.

His aura felt like nightfall, cool and soothing. Vader was as black and sticky as tar. Dogma was like old leather, tough and rough but soft when you needed him to be. Sabine was like a roaring waterfall of conflicting thoughts. Kanan was his star, as fiery hot and bright as one could imagine. His _lodestar_ , as Zeb called it. Hera was warm and soothing, like his earliest memories. Zeb and Chopper both felt like rough, strong burlap. Ezra could feel all of them. But he couldn't feel the Zabrak. He had no idea where Maul was and it was starting to scare him. The light from the older male was gone. Completely. No matter how hard Ezra searched, he couldn't find the other male.

The _scared_ him.

Dogma came into the cell. His aura was swarming with rage and anger and pain. He stopped in front of the cell, arms crossed over his chest. "Well?" he hissed. "What exactly do you have to say for yourself?"

"I don't know what happened!" Ezra jumped up, clutching the bars. Dogma growled at him. Anger flashed in dark hazel eyes. Ezra took a step back. Dogma had a lightsaber, or what looked like the carcass of one. That weapon looked like it had been through a living hell. "I don't, okay?! All I know is I touched the Amulet thing. And it...it told me I'd get my parents back!"

"That thing _lies_ ," Dogma hissed. Hard hazel eyes met blue ones. "Do you know where my **husband** is, right now? Do you know where you sold him too? Do you know just what you did to the _man I love_?"

"No," Ezra whispered. He felt miserable and he had a bad feeling that it was about to get worse.

"Maul told me he was promised to Thrawn as a reward for the Chiss abandoning the Republic," Dogma informed him. His knuckles turned white against the scarred metal. "Three guesses as to what that sick bastard wanted to do to him! I'll give you a hint--he didn't want my husband for his skills in the Force. No, he wanted o breed from what both of them considered fertile stock." Dogma looked away, his voice raw. "Though they would have found out Maul...Maul can't. Not after the Jedi cut him in two!"

"He's with Thrawn?"  Ezra softly asked. He didn't know what to say. He had just tossed a man into hell. What could he do with himself now.

Dogma nodded. "I'm wondering if Thrawn will do a swap. One Jedi for my Sith."

Ezra turned away and sank down, trying to fight the tears. What had he done? Oh...what had he done?


	31. Trophy

Maul growled at the Chiss. His golden eyes flashed with anger, but what else could he do? A gilded collar stretched over his neck, keeping him from the Force. Maul could _feel_ the meltmassif start to mess with his skin and cause him to cry out in pain. The Zabrak wrapped his arms over his head. Thrawn had dressed him in dark leather, skin tight pants that looked like they were painted on to his metal legs. His horns had been draped with delicate golden jewelry and his ears had been pieced with a second stud. Maul had always had one small one in his right ear, mostly to piss his Master off. But his Master had never cared. He had never looked at Maul unless it was to punish him.

Thrawn looked at him after a few minutes. Cold, red eyes looked at him. Maul shivered. He knew he was looking at something that had no heart, no feelings. Thrawn would never be like Dogma and allow him to curl in the bed. Maul had had one of his terrifying nightmares, seeing his Master come and torture him. He had awoken with a horrifying scream. Thrawn slapped him. He threatened to pierce Maul's still sensitive nipples if he ever awoke the Chiss again. Maul sighed and curled up cloose. He didn't want to join Thrawn on the bridge of the _Chimera_. It wasn't just that he was humiliated. It was that Maul knew he was now tainted from what had happened to him.

The Chiss might not have _touched_ him, but Maul could feel the man's eyes undressing him every time they were in the same room together.

"You look sad, pet." Thrawn beckoned Maul over and ran a hand over his horns. It was only from his Master's training that Maul was able to suppress the moan of pleasure. His horns were incredibly sensitive, living pieces of bone that felt pain and pleasure. If they hadn't been deadened by years of abuse, Savage said Maul would be able to tell when it was about to rain. Horns were more than just pretty decorations. They were a part of his body, a part that he couldn't lose. Maul had no idea what he would do if Thrawn took his horns. "Why are you so frightened of me? I haven't hurt you, not even when you needed it. You ran away from me and took my reason to be here. You made my brother's sacrifice look like it was nothing."

"You lost your brother?" Maul asked. He settled back on his hocks and crossed his arms. He didn't want his nipples bit. He'd seen the way Savage's had became infected after Asajj tossed him aside. Maul shivered and looked around. He hated this place. It was so cold and sterile, a far cry from Maul's home. He always had more than enough blankets and pillows to cuddle with if he needed to. Here, it was a cold and sterile room. Maul looked down and curled his arms around his legs. "I...I'm sorry." He looked up with saddened eyes. "You see, I lost my brother, too."

Thrawn crossed his arms and glared at the Zabrak. "So I heard. I know that you and your brother foolishly attacked Lord Sidious. What did you expect? To survive that fight? I've seen how you operate, Maul. I studied you in the Clone Wars. And I know what your species will do. Thanks to the fact I'm outcast from my homeworld, I can't take a wife from the Chiss people. And no rogue wants a husband from the Empire. I don't want to sully myself with a worn out bitch from Zyggeria, and so I wanted you. And can I say that you're so much more beautiful in person than you are in a holo." One cold hand, so very tender, brushed over Maul's cheek. The Zabrak turned his head and tried to keep his cool. He didn't want this.

"Thank you?" Maul guessed. Dogma told him beautiful almost every day. But the scars on his hips, the places where the metal joined into skin, the surgeries he had been forced to go through that gave him the life he had now... The fear he had first felt whenever Dogma touched him for the first time, the amount of time it took before he allowed the clone to touch him... That _wasn't_ beautiful. Few would want a man that was metal from the hips down. It had taken Maul so very long to understand that his little clone would want him back. Maul had always been told he was a missile, a tool to be used by his Master. He wasn't beautiful, but Dogma thought he was. And Maul would bask in that love. "I'm married, though. I have a husband. I have a son. I'm sorry, but I'm not stepping out on my husband."

_Not willingly. **Never** willingly._

Thrawn looked at the plain golden band Maul always wore. "I could give you a much, much better one than that. Anything you want, Maul. I can give you the entire galaxy after the Emperor has died." He kissed Maul's hand and pressed the kisses down his arms. The Zabrak jerked away and snarled. Thrawn laughed softly. "Well then. Aren't you a feisty one."

Maul crossed his arms. "I'm married. I don't want you!"

The blue skinned man just shrugged and trailed his hands over Maul's body. The Zabrak snarled and jerked back. He bared his teeth and looked away. He got up as fast as he could and crossed his arms over his chest. The Chiss raised one brow, but he got up and clipped a gilded chain to the collar. Maul closed his eyes and got up. Zabraks had been used as slaves for hundred of years. If his skin on Zyggeria could do this, so could he. Maul followed his new "Master" obediently. Now wasn't the time to slash his claws against Thrawn's face. Now was the time to obey and just get it over with. Thrawn liked to think he always got what he wanted. Maul, though...Maul refused to be touched in that way.

He settled into a corner and watched as Thrawn took command of the bridge. Very few looked at the alien slave. Maul saw a few Twi'leks milling around. They had the same rights as he did--none. Maul set his jaw, though, and got ready to go deal with his new life. He would do whatever it took to keep Thrawn away from his son and husband.

_Anything._


	32. Against Our Own

Maybe there was a good reason why most of the Mandalorian Clans and Houses (House Vizsla included) hadn't wanted the clones. They had just tossed them aside as the horrid pieces of filth they were. And Sabine believed that. Rex was different. He was faithful to his Jedi, Ahsoka Tano, and he made it a top priority to keep the Togruta woman safe. He might have let her get injured a few times, but that didn't mean he hadn't tried his best to keep her safe. Dogma? He shot his Jedi. Murdered the man in cold blood. Maybe there was a reason why the clone had been slated to die. Sabine gritted her teeth and gathered the Dark Saber to her. Dogma was going to regret teaching her. The old clone was _osi'yaim_ , useless.

The weapon felt cold in her hands as she slipped through the _Nightbrother_. Sabine couldn't just let Dogma swap her friend for a useless Sith! Maul couldn't do anything right. He couldn't destroy a dangerous artifact. He couldn't fight off a _padawan_. He couldn't fight off an elderly Jedi and his teenage padawan. He couldn't even kill a teenaged queen. Sabine set her jaw and pushed her way into the ship. Dogma was half asleep in his bed, she had seen him there a few minutes earlier. The clone was devastated. She supposed that Dogma could love what wasn't his imprinted Jedi General. She wondered how Maul had slept in that bed, knowing his "husband" had kiled the one he was supposed to protect. Sabine set her jaw as she went to the brig.

Ezra was waiting on her. The padawan looked like he was crying. Tears had streaked down his jaw, had matted up his long, blue-black hair. His eyes were red. Sabine could see that he looked like he just wanted to curl up and fade away. Sabine didn't care anymore. She activated her Dark Saber and sliced through the bars of the cell. The steel bars fell with a _crash_. Ezra jumped up with a start. Sabine doused the weapon and offered him her hand. He took it, sadness in his blue eyes. Sabine wondered if he felt bad for what had happened. Well, it wasn't his fault. He had been at the whims of a crazy, sadistic Sith Lord. Maul clearly did not care about anyone beyond himself. He was dragging his feet when it came to taking out Thrawn.

"Took you long enough." Ezra rubbed his face and looked at the battered old ship. It looked like Maul had had one of his "art sessions" on the steel walls of the brig. Sabine tried not to curl her lips. The Zabrak liked to take cans of spray paint and just go wild. He had no sense of style or anything like that. The blasted Zabrak was really bad about just leaving his "art" around where you could see it and get nightmares. Most of them focused on lightning. Violent bands of blue and gold lightning. If she hadn't been so focused on getting them away from Dogma, Sabine would have felt the pain released during the painting sessions. Ezra shook his head as they started for the small dropship, the _Broken Horn_. "Sabine...we have to help him. I _did this_ to Maul!"

She whirled on him, her eyes like brown flames. "Ezra! He _murdered_ my father! He murdered my fathered in cold blood!" Sabine could see the blood turning to fire in her veins. She was going to have words with him... "I was three! And yeah, I was in that throne room! So was Rook! All he was supposed to do was kill the Duchess so the **true** Mandalore could take back his throne! Not that stupid Fett clone!" If Sabine had had something, she would have thrown it at him. "You know how you can't forgive the Empire for killing your parents? I can't forgive Maul for killing my father!" She drew a soothing breath. Sabine had to keep her cool. "I tried. I tried to give him the benefit of the doubt. But don't you see? He doesn't care about the Rebellion!"

Ezra shook his head as they managed to get the ship in the air. Or the Void, rather. "You don't understand. He trained me, showed me how to make links that Kanan never learned." He looked at the controls and started plotting points for Lothal. Was her padawan looking sad over this? Sabine didn't know. Right now, she didn't care. She just wanted to get back to Hera and the Ghost Crew. "Sabine. He's tired of fighting. He's been fighting all his life! And we just _left him in the belly of the beast_!"

Sabine shrugged and noticed that Maul had one Ahsoka Tano in his contacts. The Mandalorian wondered just what else the woman was keeping from them. Ahsoka must have learned a few things from Maul. "He made his choice. He made his choice when he killed my father!" Sabine didn't know how to explain this to Ezra. Ezra hadn't seen his parents die. They had just been taken away from their house in the night. Stormtroopers, the nameless, faceless droids of the Empire, had dome the dirty deed. As for Satine? She had watched the fight and seen how Maul tore her father apart. A part of her had died the day her father's body crashed into the cold cobblestones below the palace. As far as Sabine was concerned, Maul was the devil incarnate. "I'm not going back for him. As far as I care, he can rot in the hell he created for himself!"

The young padawan put his hands on his hips. "Your father attacked him! _Face it_! I get the fact that he was your father! But you know what? Your father knew the risks of taking Maul on! _And he did it anyways_. Maybe Maul didn't need to kill him. But the fact remains that Maul took out a problem that was going to bite him again!"

She turned her back to the Jedi and locked the ship on course. "We'll take that to Kanan. But don't you ** _ever_** insult my father again!" Otherwise...her Mandalorian temper would get the better of her, just like it had in the Academy.


	33. To Right a Wrong

Ezra couldn't leave him. He just couldn't do it. Maybe it was the fact that he was a Jedi, maybe it was the fact that Maul had taught him things he could have only dreamed of before hand. But the fact still remained that Maul had helped him out. The Zabrak hadn't been forced to do so. Indeed, he could have just walked away and no one would have really cared. After all, Maul was a Sith and the only good Sith was a dead Sith if you asked most of the Jedi. Ezra just couldn't lose him. Not after what they had done to Dogma. Not after how he had hurt the older man. Dogma had already been through hell and back. What right did Ezra, as a Jedi, have to treat Dogma the same was as his former Generals did?

Rex might have put up with everything with a smile. But that was just what the old clone did. Wolffe and Gregor would sass you, but even they eventually bowed to Kanan's will and did as he said. But Dogma? Dogma was proud and free. He wouldn't give in or back down without a fight. He had flat out refused to do what Kanan told him to do. Crest was about the same way. He did whatever the hell he felt like, when he felt like it. And it was pretty funny to watch the look on Kanan's face as he started to get the idea that Dogma and Crest were a little bit of something else. They wouldn't back down like the others would. And Ezra liked that about them. That was why it hurt so much when he had done what he did to Dogma. He had taken something good and almost destroyed it. Just because he was willing to go with Sabine.

He got up and touched the place where the Amulet used to be. His chest still felt cold, like it was a part of death. Ezra forced the thoughts away from him as he got up and walked over to where the Mandalorian girl was watching the vibrant colors of hyperspace whip by. He swallowed. Why was it so hard to take Sabine on? Was it her personality? The fact that he cared for her? Ezra didn't know. But he did know that he had to do it. Maul hadn't wanted to hurt them. If he did, he could have killed the five of them that day. Instead, he was looking for his brother. Ezra understood looking for people. He understood wanting to have your family back. And now? He was denying that very thing to Maul. The Sith had lost his kitten already. He didn't need to lose his family, too.

"What do you want?" Sabine asked. The girl stood up, her once dark hair now bleached out and the tips stained with purple. But she still stood tall and proud, her eyes flashing with the _tracyn_ all _Mando'ad_ had. She wasn't some knock-off like Death Watch had been. Sabine Wren of House Vizsla was a true Mandalorian. "If it's about that thrice damned Sith, you know what my feelings are! We're not going back to get him! He killed my father! He _made his bed_ , Ezra. He has to lie in it, just like we do! Just because he can use the Force doesn't mean anything!"

"Tell me how you _really_ feel about him," Ezra joked. But his eyes showed how he really felt about this whole thing. Maul wasn't the evil creature Sabine saw him as. But he knew what arguing with her would get him. In short, it was nothing good. Still, Ezra sat beside her and looped one arm over her shoulder. He knew that she needed a little bit of comforting right now. This could go badly so many different ways if he didn't handle it just right. "But I'm thinking we need to go back. I really, really messed some things up. It's kinda part of me being a Jedi that I want to make it all right. Maul has already lost a kitten. You saw how that almost broke him. Maybe...maybe karma saw it as a trade off."

"He could be a breeding bitch on Nar Shadda and it still wouldn't be a fair trade," Sabine muttered. She stood up and brushed the hair out of her dark eyes. "I know you think I'm being irrational. And I really do not care. If you're going back, you're going to go back and get him _by yourself_. Count me out!"

Ezra nodded and brushed a hand over her shoulder as he turned to reset the course. Sabine was going to kill him when she found out. Although he had his lightsabers, Sabine had the Dark Saber. Maul had even taught her how to use it, too. She was going to be a hard enemy to beat whenever she flew at him because he had taken her back to right what they did. Ezra stood in front of the ship's controls. He hated doing this. He knew what was going to happen. Sabine had other friends, she deserved a Mandalorian. Not a street rat like him. The teenage Jedi swallowed, though, as he told the ship to go back to their jump point. Maybe there was a reason why the Jedi scorned love. Maybe there was a reason why the Jedi tried not to fall in love.

Because falling out of it? That sure hurt like hell.


	34. We're All Just Prisoners Here

Maul paced in the small room. As much as he hated to admit it, he much preferred this small, out of the way place to being put on display for the Empire. Maul felt his cheeks burn every time they looked at him. Today, his "master" had chosen to dress him in golden lamay pants and nothing else. He wore delicate horn chains of gold and the use of the Force was cut off by the cruel cuffs on his wrists. Maul shuddered as he looked at them. Thrawn liked things of beauty. He considered Maul's markings to be the marks of a true Nightbrother, never mind that you could buy one fresh off of Dathomir for fifteen credits and have him be as docile as a lamb. Hunger did things to you. Maul would know. He had beem hungry for most of his life and still stuffed himself if he thought he would be going hungry.

There was a Twi'lek male, a pretty little thing with skin like sunrise and wide green eyes. The Twi'lek, Jikta, was very shy and tended to look away once you scared him. Maul, with his powerful build and the way he had his hands cuffed at all times, was scary. He made you think twice before they went to touching him. Jikta? He was pawed all over by the guards. Jikta was a very soft orange, so light that he was nearly pink. His lekku were long and slender, a sure sign of being starved among the Twi'lek. Maul had seen a _draviain_ Twi'lek, swollen with child, that had had thinner lekku than his. Sadly, they miscarried and almost died from blood loos. Maul still counted Lenka as one of his closest friends, though. He understood what they had been through now that he had lost his own kitten.

Outside their small alcove, the Masters celebrated some victory against the Republic. Maul couldn't have cared less. He was so tired of their chaos, so tired of the fact they thought he was as submissive as every other Nightbrother slave. Some even went as far as to discount the notion he was ever a Sith and just say that a garishly painted human had attacked and killed Master Qui-Gon Jinn. At that, Maul wanted to scoff. No human, save Obi-Wan Kenobi, could fight with the same style he did. And only Kenobi because he had trained for hours on end. He had made certain to find ands detect all traces of Maul's style, studying what bits he could find on the HoloNet and studied him to find the weak points in the form he used.

He could smell the alcohol and shuddered to think of what Thrawn would do to him whilst drunk. Did the Chiss drink? Or were they like the Mandalorians and smoke cannabis to get their highs? Maul had heard from Almec and several others that the drug was actually good to help relax you after a long battle. He had never tried it, not wanting to sear his lungs with the smoke. Maul looked at the complicated locks on his cuffs. Both men knew that Maul could easily undo a thumbprint lock (hair spray, clear tape, and a donor fingerprint did that trick) and Thrawn had opted for what turned out to be a set of wrist cuffs with a fleece lining. There was a key that went around Thrawn's neck, too. Maul had spent quite a bit of time wondering exactly what shade of blue Thrawn's face would turn if he was strangled.

Glass crashed outside of their alcove. Jikta pressed close to him, his eyes fearful. Some Twi'lek males were just as pretty and delicate as the females and Jikta wasone of those. He was the very personification of grace and beauty. One of the other slaves still at the party let out a scream. It sounded like one of the other Twi'leks, a Rutian female named Akeela. Maul had only shared glances with her, but he knew she was a favorite among the officers. She was slender and supple and delicate. Much like Jikta, but he had taken the hint and gotten away from the party before he was hurt. Maul, to contrast the two Twi'leks, was a man made of hard muscle and stone. He was made to be strong, not pretty. He didn't dance, either. Not unless he got to run Thrawm through with a battle axe.

"We wanna see your Zabrak!" One of the men, maybe a Brendol Hux, slurred. Maul growled softly. He lowered his eyes and considered what was about to happen. He could get in a fight and get hurt or he could go out and get his _shebs_ pounded raw and bloody. Maul had had a good view of what the Empire had done to Aayla Secura. And it was only the fact that she bled that she wasn't "entertaining" the officers with Aayla. Maul had seen the former Jedi dance and knew, from the look in her eyes, that she was drugged or on spice. The Aayla he had crossed lightsabers with (three times) would have had all these men dead before they could even think of doing that to her. "You paid so damn much for him! I wanna see that stupid Zabrak of yours!"

"Maul," Thrawn softly called. "I think you can come out now. Akeela can't do this all herself. And bring the diluted Lethan with you, too." From the tone of his voice, Thrawn had just given him a direct order. Maul growled softly, but he obeyed. Jikta went first. The poor male was all but naked except for a little bit of a cloth protecting his middle. Akeela had none of that and she looked wrecked upon one of he reclining couches. Maul turned his gaze from her and looked at the man who dared say he was Master to Darth Maul. For his part, Thrawn looked like he was doing pretty well. He was sipping a drink, but he wasn't drunk. "Don't your people do some weird dances or something?"

Maul gritted his teeth and stepped over a puddle of cracked glass and split drink. "We don't. We have a few dances, maybe, but we don't have dances like a Twi'lek." And Maul was no dancer.

Thrawn shrugged. "Jikta, dance for us. Maul? Follow his lead. And Tirr, please do not wreck the Twi'lek female as much as your co-worker Unamo did." He gave the dark eyed man a long look. Jikta looked at Maul as he started swaying and dancing to an exotic beat. For his part, Maul felt that the dance was easy enough to do. He just hated it was forced. Maybe it would have been something he would have done for Dogma. But not now. Not when he had to look at the faces of men who didn't see him as a living being, just as a slave.

He was so distressed, he almost missed the tiny ripple in the Force that meant Ezra Bridger was near.


	35. Mass Rescue

Ezra felt a wave of sorrow as soon as he entered the Star Destroyer. A large part of him wanted to leave the _Chimera_ and never return. He could feel all the pain and suffering that the Empire could dish out, right in that ship. And the sooner he got away, the better. Ezra turned around and looked at Sabine, though. His Mandalorian partner looked like she would rip his head off for suggesting such a thing. After all, he had been the one to make a course change in the middle of the night. Ezra knew enough about the Force to know that either Maul _couldn't_ shield himself for some reason, or he wasn't trying to shield himself. Also for some very strange, very odd reason. And he didn't like that.

Getting on the big ship was actually easy. You just blasted your codes (in this case, they were faked and a gift from Hardluck Hank, a space grifter that Hera happened to be friends with), said that you were having engine problems, and went on it. Ships and people could go through the ion nets without getting killed. Ion nets also let the Destroyers have massive, "open" bays in the middle of space. From what Ezra knew, thanks to his time as an undercover agent, it was less strain on a Destroyer's reactor core to have the ion nets going at all times than it would be to open and raise a hatch/airlock very five minutes. Ion nets pretty much allowed the Empire to have the amount of big ships that they did. As a general rule, ships of the line were required to help distressed civilian crafts. The Empire was no exception to this rule. Ezra was the pilot this time. As far as the Empire knew, Elijah and Sabrina Vizsla were heading to a Clan reunion when their ship started acting funny. They had stopped out of an overabundance of caution on "Elijah's" part.

The younger human closed his eyes as he stood in the big ship's bay. He mentally told everyone to ignore him and Sabine. They were supposed to be there, it was a given Such a weak ship would only work on stormtroopers, but Ezra had long since learned that if you acted like you were supposed to be somewhere (walked straight and confident, no stooping or acting nervous), beings generally assumed that you were supposed to be there. He nodded to Sabine. The colorful Mandalorian teenager started walking through the ship. Ezra took the lead. He looked around, making sure that everything was going the way it should. He skimmed the mind of a passing officer and saw that there was an officer's gala, with the Grand Admiral's pet Sith as the star attraction.

Ezra's blood ran cold. _Maul_. It just had to be! It wouldn't be Lord Vader, he wasn't a scarred red skinned man with horns and gold all draped over him... Ezra shoved the image away. He dug a little deeper in the man's mind, shoved away the image of a naked Rutian Twi'lek, and tried to get directions. But the man was simply too far away by then. It was up to Ezra to trust his instincts. He touched the Force. Maul...had a very unique signature. It was often as cool and soothing as twilight, but with a hard and fiery edge. It suited the Zabrak well. After all, he was born from fire and baptized through blood. Sabine followed Ezra's lead again, but he wasn't paying attention to her. Instead, he was going into the ship. After about thirty minutes, he started hearing music and the sound of drinking.

Also a roar and the sound of shattering glass.

Sabine jumped. "Maul! That's him, I would know it anywhere!" She looked over at Ezra and nodded. The young woman had to be scowling beneath her helmet. He knew for a _fact_ that she hated Maul. It was only her love, as bright and passionate as any Mandalorian's, that had kept her from hurting him. Sabine, though, had glared at Ezra like she was thinking of gutting him on that spot. "I hate to say this, but if he's some sort of dancer... we at least need to try. He's a good fighter and he likes the Rebellion."

"I know." Ezra rubbed his face and started walking towards the sound. He could hear screaming now, and the cries of a terrified female. Maul screamed, this time in agony. The Force seemed to glow red hot around him, like it was a raging river straining to get free of a damn. Ezra bit his bottom lip. He did not like that one bit. But he started going on, if only to right the wrong that he'd made. He'd gotten Maul stuck here. It was only right that he should try and get the Zabrak out... Though from the sound of things, Maul was having a grand old time. He was a Sith and Sith were good at blowing things up. Ezra started to run when the Force suddenly screamed from it's distress. Something was dying. Something _important_.

Maul had thrown one of the officers out the room. His face was wild, teeth drawn back in a snarl. What clothing he'd had on was now ripped and tattered. His claws, three inches of flesh ripping keratin, dripped in blood. The Zabrak whipped back around. Without using the Force, he grabbed another officer and threw him aside. Someone grabbed a blaster. Ezra saw it and managed to freeze the blast in mid-air. But it was too hard to keep up and he set it flying in the other direction. He started with his lightsaber, slashing and driving people back. Maul moved like liquid grace. Ezra saw the Chiss in charge of this. He was sitting frozen, his red eyes wide in shock. Maul roared, drew back his hand, and literally ripped the man's throat out.

Grand Admiral Thrawn seized up, jerked, and fell back, the light gone from his red eyes. Maul paused, breathing heavily. He looked at Ezra and snarled. The Zabrak jumped off the couch. He moved like liquid grace, his muscles rippling under his tattooed hide. He grabbed Ezra before the young Jedi could react and lifted him off the ground. Ezra panicked. He screamed and tried to hit Maul with the Force, but the Zabrak just took it. Ezra could feel the Dark Side all over Maul, telling him to kill the little Jedi for what had been done to him...

A small Twi'lek ran from the center of the room and grabbed Maul's waist. "Don't hurt him! He's a Jedi! He's like Aayla when she's not high!"

"Jikta." Maul all but snarled the name as he looked at Ezra. "Go. I'm about to take care of this traitor _myself_!" He hurled Ezra across the room with brute Force. It was all the young Jedi could do to keep from landing in the shards of broken glass. Sabine grabbed a stunned Twi'ek female ans pressed her after Jikta. The young male wasn't done. He ran at Maul. Ezra shoved the boy with the Force. Maul jumped. He moved like a jungle cat and landed beside the younger Jedi. He placed his bloody claws over Ezra's throat and gripped. Yellow eyes rimmed with red, a far cry from their usual honey gold, glared down at Maul. The Zabrak looked like he was about to rip Ezra apart. "Look at what you did to me, Jedi! Tell me how this is different from what Kenobi did?! I was a free man and you made me a slave!"

"I'm sorry!" Ezra wailed. He struggled, but it was no use. Maul, even without the Force, was too strong. "Please! I know you're mad--!"

"And why shouldn't I be?!" Maul drew his claw's down the boy's face, making him yell in pain. The Zabrak was breathing heavily. "You saw what they did to Akeela! You wonder why the great Jedi Master Secura isn't here?! That's because she's down in medical! Jikta is younger than _you_ and he would have done **anything** to be a street rat! You couldn't keep your sticky little fingers to yourself and you sold me into slavery!" His eyes darkened and he leaned down. Maul wasn't snarling. Instead, his rage was calm and cold. It was the rage of a trained murderer. "Tell me, little Jedi, how you are different from the Master that took me from my mother, tortured me, and left me to _die_."

Ezra didn't have an answer as waves of guilt crashed over him.

Maul all but flung the Jedi away as he got up. "I'm getting Aayla out of here. Wren, deal with your Jedi. Get Jikta and Akeela to whatever ship you came in. I don't care what you do with the Jedi, just as long as I don't have to see him." Maul knelt beside the dead Admiral and pulled a key from the corpse. Within a second, he'd gotten the cuffs off and the Force roared to life around him. "I'm not leaving any one behind."

Ezra forced himself up and hobbled after Sabine. It was like what his Master always said. Actions had consequences.


	36. Louder Than Words

Sabine could hardly get Akeela to walk. Granted, the Twi'lek woman had been abused in the way only an Imperial official could abuse a prisoner, but she had little to no idea what to do. And then there was Jikta. Sabine had no idea what Maul had told the Twi'lek about Ezra, but it seemed to be that the young padawan was evil incarnate. Sabine rolled her eyes a little bit as she started getting them all out of there. The last thing she needed to do was get shot because she did something stupid. It was slow going getting through the ship. Ezra had a hard time telling _all_ of the stormtroopers to just look the other way and Sabine was forced to shoot a few of them. She hated doing that. It would be a mark against her when the Final Time came.

Jikta wandered ahead of them. He held Ezra's hand tightly after a trooper captain turned around and tried to shoot him. Ezra, gor his part, allowed the boy to do just that. They started moving quickly. Maul would be coming after them. He had to rescue someone else, someone named Aayla, and Sabine hoped he was successful at it. After all, the man was a Sith and the man was a killer. Siomeone was yelling behind them and the roar of blaster fire filled the air. Ezra shoved Jikta and Akeela away from the fight and activated his lightsaber. Sabine drew her DarkSaber and lit it. The weapon looked like the heart had been ripped out of the Void. In a way, this was said to be the first Sith lightsaber.

The first man came running around the corner. Ezra swiped at him, scoring the man across his chest. The trooper screamed. It looked like his very chest was on fire as the lightsaber lit the plasticoid armor on fire. Sabine drew her blade and started making the stormtroopers jerk back. Maul was no where in sight and it looked like they were pinned. Sabine launched into the fight. He started swiping, making the troopers fall back. Her blade reached the first trooper. It went straight through the armor like it wasn't even there. The man screamed, agony in his voice, as the blade severed his arm and left a bloody stump. Ezra ducked and wove around her. He started looking like he was almost dancing, sending the blasts right back to where they came from. Trooper after trooper crumpled into lifeless heaps. It struck Sabine right at how unfair this was. They were being able to kill these men, just because they had a weapon made from light and the heart of the void.

Sabine sliced another man, hard. He crumpled into a heap. She jumped over his body and turned, saber at the ready. But there were no more enemies to fight. All of the troopers had folded into heaps or they had ran away. Sabine dropped the blade and doused it. She was barely aware of the blood all over her face and her armor. Jikta had huddled into Akeela, his eyes wide with fear. It took her a few minutes to get him out. Ezra still kept point. At this time, there was no use in trying to keep hidden in this ship. Thrawn and the rest of his officers were dead. They were all lying in their own blood, right where Maul had dropped them. In a way, Sabine was very grateful that the red Zabrak had decided to come on the trip with them. After all, he had saved his brother and he knew what he was doing when it came to fighting.

Ezra dropped his blade after a few minutes. "We need to hurry. I'm not sure where Maul is, but that Zabrak can either come or get left!" It seemed like he was still smarting over the way he had been treated before. After all, Maul was a Sith and he was able to get his anger and keep it burning for a very long time. Sith were good at things like that. It was part of how they operated and she should have known that before she thought it was a good idea to get on his bad side. When Sabine thought about it that way, she was very well aware that she had pretty much come very close to getting her fool self killed. If Maul had been the monster her mother said he was, she knew that he would have killed her without even thinking about it.

They got to the ship and found Maul waiting for them. He was holding some Rutian Twi'lek and watching over her like she was something precious to him. The Twi'lek had pressed her face into his shoulders. Her own shoulders were shaking and it took Sabine a few minutes before she realized that the tail head was crying. It was like they had once been old friends and now they were reunited. Sabine wondered how many other friends Maul had. He had always struck her as someone who wouldn't have friends, just because he could be as sassy as he was.

"It took you long enough," Maul muttered softly. He looked at her with calm eyes before he dropped the _Phantom_ 's hatch with a flick of the wrist. He turned to Ezra and there was something unreadable in his cold, golden gaze. It was like he was some wild thing, forced to be tame. As they filed into the ship, Maul dropped back to speak with Ezra. Sabine felt like a bad person for sticking around, but she needed to know what they said to each other. Maul looked cold and distant, a far cry from what he usually was. "Tell your Master that I'm never coming back. After this, I'm gone for good."

The problem was, Sabine didn't blame him one bit.


	37. The Scars Inside

Aayla looked okay on the outside. Her skin was bright blue and soft, she had all of her lekku, she had her eyes, ears, fingers, toes, and other limbs, but there was something about her that was...off. It was like she had been broken inside. Her gorgeous amber eyes (Maul had to remind himself that he was married and he had one child and almost had a baby, so maybe things weren't as bleak has he had thought) were dull. Like the fire inside of them had been all burned out. Maul didn't like that. In fact, it scared him. It made him worry for the woman she had once been. Akeela and Jikta were born as slaves. They knew nothing more, but Aayla had once been a proud Jedi Knight. Maul kmew where Bly was, but he feared that the clone would walk away from her.

It took a special man to want a mate that had no legs and needed major surgery, not to mention some severe insecurities in the bedroom. It had been _months_ before Maul had let Dogma see all of him. He had feared the clone would be disgusted when he saw the scars (especially the scar through his belly. Maul had no idea why he had started to research his species, because it had just saddened him. Fertility was another thing his Master had stolen from him), the places where the metal from his legs rubbed against his flesh, and the sores that refused to heal. Maul had tried to soothe them with bacta before he just couldn't keep up with it. So he had let the wounds fester and go bad. Maul didn't know if Bly was the man that Dogma was and he didn't want to risk it.

The Twi'lek woman curled up in the bed. Maul had gone through the room, looking for weapons and things she could choke herself with. That was why he'd stolen a very fine silk blanket (the rope couldn't hold the weight of an adult Twi'lek), had removed the weapons Sabine had stashed, and made sure she ate. If Kanan was pissed about losing his blankets and sheets, Maul didn't care. He needed to take care of Aayla. But as it was, she barely ate and when she did it came up again. It wasn't that she was underweight (if anything, her Master had like the slaves...a little larger), but she didn't want to eat and a part of her didn't know she was safe. Maul also didn't speak Twi'leki nor could he use lekku to talk to her.

Where was Ahsoka or Hera when you needed them? Or even Akeela. Though that feather brain needed to get smarter if she was going to survive out in the galaxy. Maul wouldn't be around forever.

He sat at the wooden table and tried to ignore the chattering. Dogma wanted to call Bly. Jikta was so shy that he could hardly look up and Crest was trying to talk to him. Maul didn't know what to do. He played with the golden ring on his finger. When he had been on that Star Destroyer, he had put the ring in his mouth and swallowed it. Of course, he had puked later, but it had been worth it. That ring was worth his life. It meant that he was loved, that someone had cared enough to take him in. Did Aayla have that? Would Bly look at her and decide that she was too damaged? Maul didn't know what he would do then. He got up silently and walked to find the pot. He ladled out enough soup for Aayla before going to find her. She needed to eat.

The _Rebel Ghost_ was quiet. Even Chopper was leaving him alone. Maul didn't mind it. In fact, he loved being alone. The Zabrak knocked on Aayla's door and paused before he pushed his way in. As expected, Aayla was curled up in a lump. She didn't stir as Maul approached the bed. He knew that he might scare her, so he projected his movements through the Force. If she felt them, she gave no indication. Maul sighed a little and shook her. A blue face met his, the eyes empty. It was like Aayla was dead and this strange creature had been left in her place. Maul huffed a sigh and guided her hand to the Lasanian whatever-the-hell-it-was and made sure that she ate. Aayla seemed to like it and drank the water, too.

Maul got her up and made sure she walked as he arranged the bedding. She couldn't stay still for too long for fear of bedsores, but she could try to keep her comfortable. There was little else Maul could do. And Savage, oh his brother, Savage wanted to go to Dathomir. He had no idea that the planet had been destroyed. He hadn't known until Maul had told him and he yowled his pain. After Maul had cared for Aayla, he went to go find his brother. Savage had improved over the months he had been gone. Maul didn't know what to say or do as he walked. How could he face his brother after he told the other Zabrak that their entire race was either dead or enslaved and their planet a scorched cinder, floating in space?

Savage looked up from the holo-novel he was reading. "Humans have such strange ideas," he murmured. The Zabrak sighed and looked up. His horns were finally looking straight and proud, a sure sign that he was healthy now. "They talk about suffering being good for you, about it making you stronger." He sighed and looked down. Maul knew what he was holding, a carved panther. Feral had made them as totems for the witches. "I don't understand how having hurt makes you stronger."

"I'm sorry." Maul sat beside his brother, his chest heaving. What could he do? His brother had been brought back for months before Maul had known, months before Maul had happened to see the comm message. The older Zabrak tried to fight back the tears. Sith didn't cry. But then... Maul wasn't a Sith. He hadn't been a Sith for a long time. "I am so sorry."

"Why?"

"Because I left you," the red Zabrak muttered. He looked down in shame. "I left you there, in that terrible cell. And when I came to save you, I didn't know that I was with kitten and I made an even bigger mess." Pain shot through his heart and he tried not to imagine what his daughter would have looked like or how proud she would have been. "I was captured. I let my own junk get me almost killed and I...I left you again." Maul flinched whenever the other Zabrak moved. He expected to be struck and braced himself for the blow.

But Savage didn't hit him. Instead, the other Zabrak hugged him and allowed Maul to sent his neck. "I'm not mad," Savage mumbled. "I'm just glad to have my brother back."


	38. Gone

They had lost Maul, Savage, Dogma, Crest, Jikta, Akeela, and Aayla. Two Sith and a Jedi. Plus a clone who knew more about strategy than Kanan could have ever hoped to understand. And all because his idiot of a Padawan decided that he needed to go rifling through Maul's stuff and came up with a bit of powerful junk. So the Zabrak was a bit of a packrat. That didn't mean Ezra could go rifling through someone else's stuff. And it had bit him in the butt. The Rebellion, too, had lost a powerful ally because of it. What was he supposed to do? Ahsoka didn't know. She had never come across something like this when she was a Padawan. There was no asking Aayla--she had a mind break and could hardly form complete a sentence. Maul... Maul had tried to kill his Padawan more than once.

Kanan was stuck between a rock and a hard place. He didn't trust Maul as far as he could throw the man, but he also knew that Ezra couldn't go through the man's stuff. There was no one to tell him what to do now. The Jedi was on his own, floundering in a sea of total unknowns.

He sat down on his bed, head in his arms. What was he supposed to do? Punish Ezra? Make him scrub out the air vents for a week? Have him doing all the chores on the _Rebel Ghost_? Nothing seemed like it would really work. After all, Ezra thought he was in the right. He thought he had done the right thing by kicking Maul off the ship, selling him to the Empire, and then telling Crest he had to leave. That was so many shades of messed up that Kanan didn't know what to do about it. The thing was, though, Maul had found what he wanted. He'd gotten his brother back. Just like a Sith, Maul had gotten something out of the deal. For some strange reason, which was never fair, the Sith always came out on top. Maybe his Master would have had some pithy comeback about that, but Depa had been dead for years. Kanan was truly alone when it came to this.

He stood up, not sure if he wanted to face his Padawan or not. Ezra was always drawn to the Dark Side. He couldn't deny that fact. All he could say, though, was that he must have failed as a Master. There was no other explanation for what had happened. Kanan took a deep breath and squared his shoulders. There was nothing else he could say or do. What was done was done. It was up to Kanan to take control of the situation for once and make sure that nothing too bad came of it. He could use this as a moment to teach Ezra why you didn't mess with other people's stuff. That was probably the best way to go about this, once he thought of it. Ezra had stolen something that belonged to Maul and Sith crap tended to mess you up.

"Ezra?" Kanan walked through the ship. He touched the Force, but felt very little. He could feel Sabine practicing with her Dark Saber. Out of all of them, Sabine had been the one to gain the most from Maul. He had taught her willingly. Maybe Kanan felt a little jealous of that, maybe not. Ether way, he wasn't going to say anything. There wasn't much he could say or do, anyways. The older man kept walking through the ship. He felt nothing, which was very strange. He knew Maul didn't want his Padawan. Maul had said as much before he left, that Ezra had cut him deeper than his Master ever had. Kanan couldn't blame the Zabrak and he didn't. He just needed to find Her and his Padawan before something bad happened.

"Hey," Ezra softly said. He didn't look up, his face at the ground. "If you're gonna snarl at me like Jikta did, don't bother. I know I messed up, okay?"

Kanan sat beside him on the crate. "You made us lose a very valuable ally, Ezra." He truly didn't know where to go with this. "You have to understand that as a Jedi, you have no training to help you overcome the Dark Side. Maul does, which is why the Amulet didn't hurt him like it hurt you."

"That and he's already crazy," Ezra muttered under his breath.

"Can't argue with you there," Kanan replied. The man looked around at the hold. "I don't think I can punish you worse than the Force already has." It sounded weak, but it was a good enough excuse for Kanan. For the thousandth time, he wished that he had the Council to back him up. But they were all dead now. They had fallen long ago to blaster fire and a Sith's blade. "The next time you find something like that Amulet, destroy it. Never trust an object that you can't see where it keeps it's brain."

"Thank you." Ezra leaned over and gave his Master a hug before he slid off the crate. "Would you care to help me and Sabine? We want to learn how to use the Dark Saber."

Kanan nodded and followed his apprentice. "I would be glad too."

The elder Jedi failed to notice the twin red crystals Ezra had in his pocket. They were crystals for passion and determination, something that would be hard for any Force user to protect. Maul didn't even know the crystals still existed. Just like the green lightsaber Ezra had stolen, those crystals weren't even supposed to exist. The Force, though, had saved those crystals for a reason.

Only time would tell what that purpose was.

**Author's Note:**

> Comments are like Mountain Dew. They make me happy and write faster
> 
> Updates (for sure) once a week


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